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"I will remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time 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 argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to