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"I'll remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the interview went well, he might invite us into his official residence 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 we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put 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 revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM 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.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance 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 was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to