Several in the Labour Party Desire Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Tells Me He Will Remain – while the Economic Outlook Will Improve.

"I will remain in this office by 2027," the Prime Minister declared, adding that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk in the coming year.

There is never truly break for those in the top job. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year commences, Starmer seems to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have resulted in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to improve?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs believe he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", arguing no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I aim to lead us," he declared.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – 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 implying that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that the coming months would be different.

The economic situation would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He noted too, with the proviso that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His central message is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in considerable political difficulty, is a different approach required a change of tack?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister expressed regret that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is inviting clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the thought he would be content with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

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

The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new firmer plan to integrate further with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely trigger howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to align with more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to