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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship 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 former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to