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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even 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 outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing evident political risks as the year gets going. His friendship 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 was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

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

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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