Several in Labour Want Keir Starmer Gone. He Assures Me He'll Remain – and Britain's Economy Is Set to Get Better.

"I will be positioned in this position by 2027," Starmer stated, noting that if our discussion went well, he might welcome us into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is never truly time off for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the year commences, Starmer seems to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a little downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in a more positive mood than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a awful year politically for him.

But are he and his colleagues being unrealistic if they think his political fate are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable truth for the leader is that numerous of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and oust him in 2026.

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

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would take his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our generation and I plan to be at the forefront," he affirmed.

Upcoming Local Votes

The problem for the PM is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He tried to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, if those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably eager for things to change. He sought to assure me, and the nation, that this year would be distinct.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He pledged to shut asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

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

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political direction, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in this much political trouble, does he need a different script?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

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

Starmer attributed it to "procedures" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing clear political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

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

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

And there has always been growing tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his promise never to try to reverse the results that stemmed from Brexit.

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