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"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires 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 a long period, the thought he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to