Some in the Labour Party Want Starmer Out. He Assures Me He'll Endure – while the Economy Is Set to Improve.

"I will be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat in the coming year.

There is never any time off for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

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 attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably eager for things to improve. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

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