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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the interview was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

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

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted 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 statements he'd made in the past – 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 not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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