Some within Labour Want Keir Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Informs Me He Will Remain – while the Economic Outlook Is Set to Get Better.

"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not just because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has always been bubbling desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to