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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout 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 about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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 controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on 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 many years, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to