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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to