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"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across 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 a verdict on Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

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

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to