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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede 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 walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to