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"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly break for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to