Several in Labour Want Starmer Out. He Assures Me He'll Survive – and Britain's Economic Outlook Is Set to Strengthen.

"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his standing are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

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

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

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

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

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