Some in Labour Seek Keir Starmer Gone. He Informs Me He Will Endure – and the Economy Will Improve.

"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer remarked, joking that if our discussion went well, he might invite the interviewer into his official residence for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

There is rarely ever downtime for leaders. Just an hour before we sat down, Sir Keir had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

Renewed Energy for the New Year

As the year commences, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a refresh. Maybe even just some a rest with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues kidding themselves if they reckon his standing are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

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

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

Multiple times he told me he'd be "assessed at the next election", arguing no one would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace its leader.

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

Upcoming Local Votes

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to argue, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections be disastrous for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was reasonably anxious for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the public, that this year would be a change.

The economic situation would improve despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not put a firm date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now talking about how to integrate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "reach a turning point".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing pressure from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.

Given that he is in considerable political trouble, should he consider a different script?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because government is hard, but because he and his colleagues have faltered, even in the last few weeks.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not realising 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 progresses. His alliance with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the idea he would be at ease with such action seems far-fetched.

International Law and Brexit

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "just lack the entire story at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

There has also consistently been simmering pressure in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific plan to integrate further with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European market – will probably elicit accusations that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to