Several within the Labour Party Seek Keir Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Informs Interviewers He'll Endure – and Britain's Economy Will Get Better.

"I'll remain in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might invite us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is never truly downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When the discussion, which was far more extended than usual, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

As the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of downtime with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies being unrealistic if they think his standing are about to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh truth for the PM is that a significant number of his party members are convinced he's not very good at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would remove his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the electorate was understandably eager for things to get better. He tried to convince me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economy would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial rocky year began to show results.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

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

However, in spite of encountering pressure from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political clarity, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his team have faltered, including in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

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

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

Critics called for him to denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour party to revisit some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new more concrete pledge to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A decision to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy a faction on his side of the party, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to