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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

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

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted 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 – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention 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 notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is likely 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 party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

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