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"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had finished, 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 a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

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

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls 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 made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted 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 – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to