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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle 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 well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

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

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine 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 PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me 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 following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Critics demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to