Some within Labour Seek Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Tells Me He Will Remain – while Britain's Economic Outlook Will Strengthen.

"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He sought to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, should he consider 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 just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" 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 complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to