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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if the conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, 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.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy 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 at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to