Several within Labour Desire Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Tells Interviewers He'll Remain – and the Economic Outlook Will Get Better.

"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

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

However Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path 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 intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But although 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 situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than observed 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 approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk 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 thought he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

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

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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