A Number of in Labour Seek Keir Starmer Gone. He Assures Interviewers He'll Survive – and the Economic Outlook Will Strengthen.

"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our interview went well, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly appeared to have left him in improved morale than at the saggy conclusion of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his standing are about to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM 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, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to change. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be distinct.

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

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big argument is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes 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 these events seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been bubbling pressure in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific plan to align more closely with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his own side, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to