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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another chat in the coming year.

There is never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

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

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem 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 protest, perhaps 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 although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate 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".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails 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 such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to