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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to