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"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely elicit accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to