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"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in 2026.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, 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 concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core point is that this year 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 facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for 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.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication 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 his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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