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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his political fate are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir 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 courting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce 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 always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to