Some in the Labour Party Want Keir Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Informs Interviewers He'll Endure – and Britain's Economic Outlook Is Set to Improve.

"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant 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 walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's intervention 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 thought he would be content with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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