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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

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

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

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance 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 many years, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to