Several in Labour Want Starmer Out. He Tells Interviewers He'll Remain – while the Economy Is Set to Improve.

"I will remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our interview went well, he might invite us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never any break for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Sir Keir had been in calls with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his big ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our interview, which was far more extended than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been indicted in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

But as the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.

This seemed to have put him in improved morale than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to turn around?

Leadership Questions

The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner gamble and remove him sooner rather than later.

However Starmer was having none of it during our conversation on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", maintaining no one would strip his electoral mandate from him – even if the optimal path of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to change leader.

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

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be judged long before then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

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

This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no scenario under which he would step down, should a his MPs contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally eager for things to get better. He aimed to persuade the interviewer, and the public, that this year would be different.

The economic situation would improve in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government put in place during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to shut asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not set a new date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
• He revealed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.

His big message is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have communicated with greater vigour than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing demands from many directions for a more decisive approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were well-known ones.

Given that he is in this much political peril, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his team have erred, including in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The prime minister 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.

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

And he is inviting obvious political dangers as the year unfolds. His friendship with the US president acquires a new risk after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with this kind of intervention seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

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

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

Sir Keir denies he's doing that, but his new specific pledge to integrate further with the EU's single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is going back on his pledge never to try to overturn the choices that followed Brexit.

A move to align with more of the single market will delight a faction on his side of the party, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to