Some within the Labour Party Seek Starmer Out. He Informs Me He Will Survive – and the Economy Is Set to Improve.

"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

There is never any downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, 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 finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with much more political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, 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 unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

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 following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to