Several within the Labour Party Want Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Assures Me He'll Remain – and the Economy Will Get Better.

"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – to some extent. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

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

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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 past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir 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 inviting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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