Some within the Labour Party Want Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Assures Interviewers He Will Endure – while the Economy Will Get Better.

"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the discussion went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the 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 end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his standing are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged 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 colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to change. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

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 statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not catching 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 close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication 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 notion he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to