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"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" 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 – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His friendship 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 was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to