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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought 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.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs challenged him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

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

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big message is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me 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 controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging 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 a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to