Several in the Labour Party Desire Keir Starmer Removed. He Informs Interviewers He Will Endure – while Britain's Economy Is Set to Get Better.

"I will be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, adding that if the conversation went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next 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 working to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his political fate are set to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his party members think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

But Sir Keir was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the fight of our generation and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major 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.

True – up to a point. But although he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

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

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

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

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as planned.

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

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not catching 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 unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action 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 thought he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been bubbling tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely trigger howls that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to