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"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, 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 usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

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

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge 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 own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to