A Number of within Labour Want Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Informs Interviewers He'll Survive – while Britain's Economy Is Set to Improve.

"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

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

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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