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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out this year.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge 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 sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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 after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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