Several in the Labour Party Desire Starmer Gone. He Assures Me He Will Remain – and the Economic Outlook Will Strengthen.

"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his fellow MPs are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the battle of our generation and I aim to guide the party," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to argue, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their first choppy year began to show results.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister 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 after an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship 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 was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to