Several within Labour Want Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Tells Me He'll Survive – while Britain's Economy Will Improve.

"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to improve. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to