Several within Labour Want Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Assures Me He'll Remain – while Britain's Economic Outlook Will Improve.

"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

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

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, 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 time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted 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 following an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as 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 fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has consistently been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to