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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some 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 insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret 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 past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from 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 easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to