A Number of in Labour Seek Keir Starmer Gone. He Assures Interviewers He Will Survive – and the Economic Outlook Will Strengthen.

"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the saggy end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that many of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I plan to lead us," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.

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

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to