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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication 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 idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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