A Number of in Labour Seek Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Tells Me He Will Endure – while the Economic Outlook Will Get Better.

"I will remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

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

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including 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 more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. 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 such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to