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"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our conversation went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than normal, 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 revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number 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 sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated 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 potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to