Several in Labour Want Keir Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Informs Me He'll Survive – while the Economy Will Get Better.

"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our interview was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the government put in place during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite encountering pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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