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"I will remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

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

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action 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 thought he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke 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 own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to