Some within the Labour Party Want Keir Starmer Removed. He Assures Interviewers He'll Remain – while Britain's Economic Outlook Will Get Better.

"I will remain in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than typical, had ended, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – even if the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I aim to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with much more political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – 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 more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk 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 his career, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been bubbling pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

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