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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues 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 naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government 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 was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that stemmed 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 easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to