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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing no one would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I plan to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

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

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year gets going. 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 idea he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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