Some in the Labour Party Desire Keir Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Informs Interviewers He Will Remain – while Britain's Economy Will Improve.

"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another chat next year.

There is never any time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", maintaining no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to improve. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is courting evident political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing 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 such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to