Several within the Labour Party Want Starmer Out. He Assures Me He'll Survive – and the Economy Will Strengthen.

"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

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

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is facing clear political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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