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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to