A Number of within Labour Desire Starmer Gone. He Assures Me He'll Endure – while Britain's Economic Outlook Is Set to Strengthen.

"I'll remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would take his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

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 sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me 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 – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's military action 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 idea he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results 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 probably trigger protests 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 delight a faction on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to