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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

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 sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to improve. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "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 courting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed 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 told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to