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"I will be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

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

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

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following 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 catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to