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"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our discussion went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to get better?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister 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, 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 – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year gets going. 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 was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

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

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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