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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity 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 notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to