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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM 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 following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure 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 results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to