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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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