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"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on 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 many years, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to