Some in Labour Want Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Tells Me He'll Remain – and Britain's Economic Outlook Will Improve.

"I'll be positioned in this seat by 2027," Starmer stated, adding that if our discussion was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they believe his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the poll", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The May Elections

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to get better. He sought to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, is a different approach required a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret 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 backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been bubbling tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

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