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"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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