Several in the Labour Party Seek Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Tells Me He Will Survive – while the Economy Is Set to Get Better.

"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I plan to be at the forefront," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to improve. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

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

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, but he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's military action 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 idea he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to undo the results that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to