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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly 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 optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge 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 contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

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

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me 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 controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed 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 such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to