A Number of in Labour Seek Keir Starmer Gone. He Informs Interviewers He'll Endure – and Britain's Economic Outlook Is Set to Improve.

"I will be positioned in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the conversation went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another chat in 2026.

There is never any break for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, Starmer seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his political fate are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the general election", insisting no one would remove his term from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, even if a his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally eager for things to change. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would recover notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the government enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the caveat that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

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

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

Given that he is in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

Sir Keir's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when comments he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting evident political perils as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the idea he would be content with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the results of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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