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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial 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 specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted 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 made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

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

There has also always been growing desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to