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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies 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 this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails 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 many years, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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