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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to