Several within the Labour Party Want Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Tells Me He Will Survive – and the Economy Is Set to Strengthen.

"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to convince me, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is breaking his promise never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to