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"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth 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.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

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

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action 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 this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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