A Number of in the Labour Party Desire Keir Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Tells Me He Will Remain – while Britain's Economic Outlook Is Set to Improve.

"I'll be positioned in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer remarked, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for another talk in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never truly break for leaders. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

But as the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

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

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to get better?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and remove him in 2026.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to switch leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The issue for the PM is that he will be scrutinised long before then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues challenged him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He sought to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to change. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when strategies the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, is a different approach required a different script?

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

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

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister expressed regret 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 after an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. 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 notion he would be content with this kind of intervention seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded criticise the action before the interview. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been simmering pressure in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the decisions that followed Brexit.

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