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"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for 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 – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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