Several in Labour Want Keir Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Informs Me He Will Survive – and Britain's Economy Is Set to Get Better.

"I will remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing 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 "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to