Several within the Labour Party Want Keir Starmer Out. He Assures Interviewers He'll Survive – while Britain's Economic Outlook Will Get Better.

"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, noting that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted 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.

True – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk 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 thought he would be content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action prior to 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 always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to