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"I will remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never any time off for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not 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 disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to