Some within the Labour Party Seek Keir Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Informs Me He Will Survive – while the Economic Outlook Is Set to Improve.

"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for another chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was much longer than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they think his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that a significant number of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about 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 evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably impatient for things to change. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly 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 government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting obvious political dangers as the year gets going. His friendship 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 was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably provoke accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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