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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe 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 although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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 statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to