Several in the Labour Party Desire Starmer Gone. He Informs Me He'll Endure – and the Economy Is Set to Strengthen.

"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his fortunes are set to turn around?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the leader is that numerous of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would take his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, 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 admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with greater political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to