Several within the Labour Party Desire Keir Starmer Removed. He Assures Interviewers He'll Endure – while the Economic Outlook Will Get Better.

"I will remain in the same seat by 2027," Starmer remarked, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another chat in 2026.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to switch its leader.

"We are in the fight of our times and I intend to guide the party," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem 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 tried to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, 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 admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration implemented during their first turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core argument is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – more relaxed, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political peril, does he need a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents called for him to criticise the action before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has always been growing desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit protests that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

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