Some within the Labour Party Want Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Assures Me He'll Remain – and Britain's Economic Outlook Is Set to Get Better.

PM Keir Starmer in conversation — Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaking.

"I'll be positioned in this position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, noting that if our discussion was successful, he might welcome us into his official residence for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for prime ministers. In the hour before our chat started, the PM had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had occurred 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 interview, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

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

But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are about to improve?

Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro detained — The President Nicolás Maduro was detained.

Internal Doubts

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was dismissing such talk in the interview on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his term from him – even if the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the fight of our lifetime and I intend to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

Accurate – in part. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his colleagues ran against him for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration enacted during their first choppy year began to take effect.

He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
He added too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
He stated for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Sir Keir Starmer addressing confidently — Sir Keir Starmer seemed more energetic during the discussion.

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with greater vigour than I've seen from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from many directions for a more decisive approach, with greater political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political trouble, does he need a new narrative?

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

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

Regrets and Risks

The PM 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 following an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "procedures" 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 dangers as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with such action seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong champion of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Some called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an explicit view in Parliament in the next few days.

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

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European market – will likely elicit howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to undo the choices that followed Brexit.

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

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Some within the Labour Party Want Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Assures Me He'll Remain – and Britain's Economic Outlook Is Set to Get Better.

A Reboot for the New Year

Internal Doubts

Upcoming Local Votes

Predicting a Turnaround

Political Challenges

Regrets and Risks

International Law and Brexit

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