A Number of within the Labour Party Want Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Assures Interviewers He Will Remain – and Britain's Economic Outlook Will Get Better.

"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to