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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed 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 potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to