A Number of in Labour Want Keir Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Informs Interviewers He Will Survive – and the Economic Outlook Will Strengthen.

"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

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

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete commitment to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to