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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would take his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to