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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

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

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, 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 held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to