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"I will be sitting in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core message 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 some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a change of tack?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret 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 controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" 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 perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to