Some within Labour Seek Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Tells Me He'll Survive – and Britain's Economy Is Set to Strengthen.

"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat next year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and get him out this year.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, 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 although 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, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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 controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

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