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"I will remain in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, 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 admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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