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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his standing are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, 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 even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy 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 "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to