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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

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

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 following an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to