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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret 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 outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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