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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication 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 a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to