Several in Labour Want Starmer Removed. He Tells Me He Will Survive – while the Economy Is Set to Get Better.

"I'll be sitting in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, adding that if our conversation proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.

There is never any time off for leaders. Just an hour before our chat started, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his close friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

With the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the sluggish conclusion of 2025, a terrible political year for him.

But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they think his political fate are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The harsh truth for the prime minister is that many of his party members believe he's not very good at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

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

Multiple times he stated he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting no one would remove his electoral mandate from him – even if the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a huge set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to contend, maybe too much, that they are about who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

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

Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Predicting a Turnaround

He attempted to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was understandably impatient for things to improve. He tried to convince me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the government put in place during their first turbulent year began to take effect.

• He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a new date on that.
• He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.

His core point is that in 2026 the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

However, in spite of facing calls from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in such significant political trouble, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and especially not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

The Prime Minister's problems 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 PM admitted 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 made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

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

And he is courting clear political risks as the year gets going. His alliance with the US president takes on a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

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

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "longtime champion of international law" but the public "simply haven't got 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 definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing pressure in the Labour party to undo or remake some of the results of Brexit.

The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will probably trigger accusations that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that flowed from Brexit.

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