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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, 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 partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly 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 just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements 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 catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to