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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

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

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following 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 "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk 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 thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to