Several within the Labour Party Desire Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Tells Interviewers He'll Survive – while the Economy Will Strengthen.

"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the interview was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his political fate are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge 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 protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to