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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if the conversation went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across 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 unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede 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 resign, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

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

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, 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 expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" 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 – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political dangers 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 his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to