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"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that 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 be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir 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 inviting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to