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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had happened 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 finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret 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 after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to