Some within Labour Seek Keir Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Tells Me He'll Survive – while the Economy Is Set to Improve.

"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, 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

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and oust him this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, 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 dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted 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 outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from 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