Some within Labour Desire Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Assures Interviewers He'll Remain – and Britain's Economic Outlook Will Strengthen.

"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if our conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just some downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

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

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would take his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" 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 risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president entails a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to