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"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out 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 general election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said 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 major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed 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 such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to