A Number of within the Labour Party Want Keir Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Tells Me He'll Survive – and Britain's Economic Outlook Will Get Better.

"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for another chat next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to get better. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His central point is that in 2026 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 – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including 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 backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Some wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably provoke protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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