Some within Labour Desire Starmer Gone. He Informs Interviewers He Will Survive – and Britain's Economic Outlook Will Get Better.

"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret 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 previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

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