A Number of within Labour Seek Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Assures Me He'll Remain – and Britain's Economic Outlook Will Strengthen.

"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner 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 insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure me, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their initial rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just do not have the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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