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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, 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.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

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