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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – 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 inviting clear political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to