Some in Labour Want Keir Starmer Gone. He Tells Me He'll Endure – while the Economy Will Strengthen.

"I will remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the interview was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, 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 "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – 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 more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to