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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral 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 switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to