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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

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

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

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

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

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

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to