A Number of in the Labour Party Seek Keir Starmer Removed. He Informs Interviewers He Will Survive – and Britain's Economy Will Get Better.

"I will be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in 2026.

There is rarely ever time off for prime ministers. Just an hour before our chat started, Starmer had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year commences, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Maybe even just a little a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his standing are poised to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the prime minister is that a significant number of his colleagues think he's not very good at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he told me he'd be "judged at the next election", arguing no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I plan to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge 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 excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – to some extent. But although he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable 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 MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably eager for things to get better. He aimed to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the administration put in place during their initial choppy year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His central message is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political difficulty, should he consider a different script?

No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, has everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he regretted saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Starmer attributed it to "the system" for not realising what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing obvious political dangers as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication 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 idea he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is expected to face more pressure to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

The PM rejects he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the decisions that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to