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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to