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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to