A Number of within the Labour Party Want Keir Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Tells Me He'll Survive – while Britain's Economy Will Get Better.

"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Number 10 for another chat next year.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what 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 much longer than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would strip his term from him – even if the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I aim to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to get better. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that 2026 would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted 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 outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

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