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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about 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, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is facing evident political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed 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 asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to