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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing 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 its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to