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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about 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 evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

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

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to