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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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 – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance 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 many years, the notion he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to