Some within Labour Seek Keir Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Tells Interviewers He Will Remain – and the Economy Will Strengthen.

"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before we sat down, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was far more extended than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his political fate are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "evaluated at the general election", maintaining nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He aimed to convince the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he claimed, when policies the administration implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His core message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to