Some within the Labour Party Desire Keir Starmer Gone. He Assures Interviewers He'll Survive – while Britain's Economy Will Improve.

"I will be positioned in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for another talk in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a little downtime with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they think his standing are poised to turn around?

Party Concerns

The uncomfortable reality 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 gamble and remove him this year.

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

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the general election", arguing no one would strip his term from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I plan to guide the party," he affirmed.

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably anxious for things to improve. He tried to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would recover in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the administration put in place during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

Political Challenges

The PM may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing demands from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with much more political vision, more vigour, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, is a different approach required a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an controversy when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the entire story at the moment".

Opponents demanded condemn it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been simmering desire in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer commitment to move closer with the European trading bloc – the giant economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to undo the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to