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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement 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 talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to