Some in Labour Desire Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Tells Interviewers He'll Endure – while the Economic Outlook Will Get Better.

"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

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

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs believe 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 Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to get better. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration enacted during their first rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

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

And there has always been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

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