A Number of within the Labour Party Want Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Assures Interviewers He'll Remain – and the Economic Outlook Will Get Better.

"I will be sitting in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, noting that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

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

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the leader is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him this year.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our times and I plan to lead us," he declared.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His central argument is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite facing pressure from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is challenging, but because he and his team have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

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

And he is facing evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication 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 his career, the idea he would be comfortable with such action seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Opponents demanded condemn it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy some on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to