A Number of in the Labour Party Seek Starmer Removed. He Informs Me He'll Endure – and the Economy Will Get Better.

"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, noting that if our conversation went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time the discussion, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the difficult end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are about to get better?

Party Concerns

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members believe he's underperforming 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 when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the poll", arguing nobody would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

"This is the struggle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

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

Promises of Improvement

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably impatient for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't 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 occasion that Western partners were now considering how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core message is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

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

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with much more political clarity, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in such significant political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No government, 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 governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM 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 backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

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

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just haven't got the full picture at the moment".

Opponents called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

There has also consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably trigger protests that he is reneging on his vow never to try to reverse the results that followed Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to