A Number of in the Labour Party Want Keir Starmer Gone. He Informs Interviewers He Will Endure – and Britain's Economic Outlook Will Get Better.

"I will remain in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede 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 step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

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

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" 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 – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents called for him to condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to