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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including 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 inviting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk 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 notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

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