A Number of in Labour Want Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Assures Me He'll Survive – and the Economy Will Improve.

"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in 2026.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. Shortly before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing no one would take his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

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

The Spring Test

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

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

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

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably impatient for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government put in place during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

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

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me 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 – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will please some on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to