A Number of within the Labour Party Want Starmer Removed. He Tells Interviewers He'll Remain – and Britain's Economic Outlook Will Strengthen.

"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, joking that if the interview went well, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before the interview began, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The grisly reality for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though 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 situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

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

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to move closer with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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