Several within the Labour Party Seek Starmer Out. He Informs Interviewers He Will Endure – and Britain's Economy Will Strengthen.

"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" 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 obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to