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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk next year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge 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 devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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 controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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 courting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to