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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to