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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to admit 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 step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, 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 "pleased" 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 – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "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 evident political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to