Several in the Labour Party Desire Keir Starmer Removed. The Prime Minister Assures Me He'll Survive – while the Economic Outlook Will Get Better.

"I'll remain in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up talk in 2026.

There is rarely ever break for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher precisely had happened in Venezuela, where his close political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

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

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have resulted in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are set to turn around?

Internal Doubts

The grisly truth for the PM is that many of his party members think he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner gamble and remove him this year.

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

Repeatedly he stated he'd be "evaluated at the general election", arguing nobody would take his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 may be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

The Spring Test

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a major set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged 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, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the public was naturally impatient for things to improve. He aimed to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace agreement 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 integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a possible peace.

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

Familiar Arguments

The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – calmer, perhaps, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from within his own party for a bolder approach, with increased political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a different script?

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

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, including in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

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

Starmer blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is inviting clear political dangers as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the notion he would be comfortable with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He asserted he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply do not have the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is likely to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also long been growing pressure in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the decisions that flowed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy some on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to