Some in Labour Desire Keir Starmer Gone. He Tells Interviewers He'll Remain – while the Economy Is Set to Get Better.

"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," Starmer declared, joking that if the conversation proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.

Yet, are he and his allies deluding themselves if they reckon his standing are set to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the PM is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", insisting no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to protest, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to change. He tried to convince the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government implemented during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He noted too, with the qualification that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His big argument is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with increased political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in this much political peril, should he consider 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 challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when statements he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

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

And he is facing obvious political perils as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded condemn it before the interview. And the administration is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to