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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing nobody 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 might be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to