Some in the Labour Party Seek Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Assures Me He'll Survive – while Britain's Economic Outlook Is Set to Improve.

"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our interview went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

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

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer 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 combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is hard, 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 "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing clear political risks as the year unfolds. 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 opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely elicit howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into 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