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"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never any break for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe 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 although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" 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 – came to light.

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

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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