Some in Labour Want Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Tells Interviewers He Will Endure – and the Economic Outlook Will Improve.

"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is never any break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had occurred 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 much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing nobody would strip his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration enacted during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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 outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to