Several in Labour Seek Keir Starmer Gone. He Tells Interviewers He'll Survive – while the Economic Outlook Is Set to Improve.

"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat in 2026.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful year politically for him.

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

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and oust him this year.

However Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "assessed at the poll", insisting nobody would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"This is the struggle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be a change.

The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline 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 peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his points were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the entire story at the moment".

Some wanted him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to