Some within the Labour Party Desire Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Assures Me He'll Endure – and Britain's Economic Outlook Is Set to Improve.

"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

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

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to