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"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

There is never any break for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes 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 such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to