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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

There is never any downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the PM is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to