A Number of in the Labour Party Seek Keir Starmer Gone. He Tells Interviewers He'll Remain – while the Economic Outlook Is Set to Strengthen.

"I will be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the interview went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

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

Party Concerns

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

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 challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me 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 past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship 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 ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to