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"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another chat next year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

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

"We are in the fight of our times and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to