Some in Labour Desire Keir Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Informs Me He Will Survive – and the Economy Will Get Better.

"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that numerous of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and remove him this year.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to get better. He sought to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, does he need a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has consistently been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the choices that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to