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"I will remain in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his standing are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, should he consider a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" 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 obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to