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"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation next year.

There is rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

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

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, does he need a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

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.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to