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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

There is never any break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede 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 resign, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks 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 fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action 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 implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to