Some within the Labour Party Seek Keir Starmer Out. He Informs Me He Will Survive – and Britain's Economic Outlook Will Improve.

"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to