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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

But Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" 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 unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to