Some in the Labour Party Want Keir Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Tells Interviewers He Will Remain – and the Economy Will Strengthen.

"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – 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 scenario under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political perils as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to