Several in Labour Desire Keir Starmer Gone. He Assures Interviewers He'll Survive – while the Economic Outlook Is Set to Get Better.

"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to admit 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 walk away, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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