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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to