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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

But Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. 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 suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

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

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

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

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

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

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. 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 growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to