Some within the Labour Party Want Keir Starmer Removed. He Assures Me He Will Remain – while Britain's Economy Will Strengthen.

"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another conversation in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just some downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the leader is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner take a risk and get him out this year.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting no one would remove his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to show results.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put 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 a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his points were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting evident political dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also long been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will likely provoke howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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