A Number of in the Labour Party Seek Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Tells Interviewers He'll Survive – while Britain's Economy Will Improve.

"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

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

True – to some extent. 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 stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing demands from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me 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 comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- 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.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to