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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they believe his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to