Some within Labour Want Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Tells Me He Will Endure – while Britain's Economy Will Improve.

"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the discussion went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the leader is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega 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 unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes 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 comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to