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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM 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 previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to