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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year progresses. His friendship 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 his career, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to