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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat next year.

There is never truly break for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed 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 simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to