Some within Labour Seek Keir Starmer Removed. He Assures Interviewers He'll Survive – while Britain's Economy Is Set to Strengthen.

"I'll be sitting in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if the discussion went well, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another conversation next year.

There is never truly downtime for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Maybe even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the leader is that a significant number of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The issue for the PM is that he will be assessed long before then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to argue, maybe too much, 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 even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally eager for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale 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 potential peace.

His core message is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with much more political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as desired.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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 inviting obvious political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new risk 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 many years, the thought he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but we "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

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

And there has consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to integrate further with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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