A Number of within the Labour Party Seek Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Assures Me He Will Endure – and Britain's Economy Is Set to Strengthen.

"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

There is never any break for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

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

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks 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 realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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