Some within the Labour Party Want Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Informs Interviewers He Will Endure – and Britain's Economy Will Improve.

"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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 following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention 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 these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to