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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never any time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister 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 in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk 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 content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it 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 always been growing desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to