Several within Labour Desire Starmer Gone. He Informs Interviewers He Will Endure – while Britain's Economy Is Set to Improve.

"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for those in the top job. Shortly before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended 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. Maybe even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout 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.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to change. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including 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 courting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move 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