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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is never any time off for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed 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 struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to