Several in Labour Want Keir Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Tells Me He'll Endure – and Britain's Economic Outlook Is Set to Get Better.

"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our interview was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his colleagues believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him this year.

But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "judged at the poll", maintaining no one would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change its leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, maybe excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although 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 circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was reasonably eager for things to change. He tried to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His core argument is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive strategy, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted 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 after an backlash when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship 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 a long period, the idea he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Some demanded criticise the action before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is breaking his promise never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will delight some on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to