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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir 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 recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his standing are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive 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 safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

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

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to