Several within Labour Want Keir Starmer Gone. He Assures Me He'll Remain – while Britain's Economy Is Set to Improve.

"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just some relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I plan to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant 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 MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace deal 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 integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political risks 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 former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

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

Some called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to