Several in Labour Seek Starmer Gone. He Assures Me He'll Endure – while Britain's Economic Outlook Is Set to Get Better.

"I will remain in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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 government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

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

And he is inviting clear political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been bubbling tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to