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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never truly time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to improve. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to