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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

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 sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to