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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, 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 acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret 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 outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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