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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, 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 reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation 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 – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to