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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe 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 better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal 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 considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret 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 controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. 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 was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to