A Number of in Labour Want Keir Starmer Removed. He Informs Me He'll Remain – while Britain's Economy Will Improve.

"I'll remain in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, noting that if the interview went well, he might invite us into his official residence for another chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

With the year starts, Starmer appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have left him in a more positive mood than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He tried to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs challenged him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government implemented during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political difficulty, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when comments he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer attributed it to "the process" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the complete details at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also always been growing pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to