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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to