Some within Labour Seek Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Tells Me He Will Survive – while the Economy Is Set to Get Better.

"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any time off for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they believe his standing are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The grisly truth for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

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

The May Elections

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 sought to protest, perhaps 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 although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to change. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back 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 – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be content with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

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