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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want 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, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

No administration, 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 only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to