Some in Labour Desire Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Informs Interviewers He Will Survive – while Britain's Economy Will Strengthen.

"I will remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. In the hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that followed Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to