A Number of within the Labour Party Want Keir Starmer Out. He Tells Interviewers He Will Endure – and the Economy Is Set to Strengthen.

"I'll be sitting in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up talk in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, the PM had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime 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 year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they reckon his fortunes are poised to improve?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the PM is that many of his party members are convinced he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and oust him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", maintaining no one would strip 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 switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our lifetime and I aim to guide the party," he said.

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would step down, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He sought to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to improve. He sought to persuade the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be different.

The economy would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their first rocky year began to take effect.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it was not a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

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

A Consistent Script

The PM may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from various quarters for a more decisive approach, with much more political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, does he need a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, has everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is courting clear political perils as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems implausible.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "career-long proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics demanded denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been bubbling desire in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir rejects he's doing that, but his new more concrete plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the vast economic European market – will probably elicit howls that he is breaking his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to