Some in the Labour Party Want Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Tells Me He Will Endure – and Britain's Economy Is Set to Get Better.

"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the interview went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for 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 previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention 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 content with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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