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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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