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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized 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.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that numerous of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing obvious political perils 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 ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have 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 definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to move closer 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 overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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