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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

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

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

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 perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires 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 a long period, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to