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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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 backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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