A Number of in Labour Seek Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Informs Interviewers He'll Remain – while Britain's Economic Outlook Will Strengthen.

"I will remain in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if the discussion went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk next year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant 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 resign, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to