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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to