A Number of in Labour Seek Starmer Gone. He Tells Interviewers He'll Remain – and the Economic Outlook Is Set to Strengthen.

"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

With the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his five-year mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention 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 comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Some demanded denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific plan to move closer with the single market – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to