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

For a PM, there's never truly break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to