Some in Labour Want Starmer Removed. He Tells Interviewers He'll Endure – while Britain's Economy Will Strengthen.

"I'll be positioned in the same position by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, joking that if the interview went well, he might invite the interviewer into Number 10 for a follow-up chat in the coming year.

For a PM, there's never any downtime for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than typical, had finished, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a reboot. Perhaps even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly appeared to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his standing are poised to get better?

Leadership Questions

The harsh reality for the PM is that many of his fellow MPs think he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Sir Keir was having none of it when we spoke on Saturday morning.

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", insisting no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I aim to be at the forefront," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged well ahead of then – in a major set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to argue, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – to some extent. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration put in place during their initial turbulent year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, but he wouldn't set a new date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His central point is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a bolder strategy, with greater political vision, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, does he need a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his team have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

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

And he is inviting obvious political risks as the year progresses. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's military action on Venezuela.

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

International Law and Brexit

He told me he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been growing desire in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's pursuing that, but his new firmer pledge to integrate further with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his pledge never to try to undo the decisions that followed Brexit.

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