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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our discussion went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted 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 controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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 former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

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

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to