Some within the Labour Party Want Keir Starmer Out. The Prime Minister Tells Me He'll Remain – and the Economy Is Set to Improve.
"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," Starmer declared, noting that if our conversation went well, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up talk in the coming year.
There is rarely ever downtime for those in the top job. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.
When our interview, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.
Renewed Energy for the New Year
But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.
That certainly seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult conclusion of 2025, a terrible year politically for him.
Yet, are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they reckon his political fate are set to turn around?
Party Concerns
The uncomfortable truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's ineffective at his job. Some of them would rather take a risk and get him out in 2026.
But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.
On several occasions he stated he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – even if the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 might be for Labour to replace its leader.
"We are in the battle of our lifetime and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.
The May Elections
The problem for the PM is that he will be assessed far sooner than then – in a huge 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 governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.
True – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.
Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if one of his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections prove very poor for Labour.
Promises of Improvement
He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the public was naturally anxious for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that 2026 would be distinct.
The economy would recover despite rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to take effect.
- He pledged to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he wouldn't put a firm date on that.
- He added too, with the proviso that it was not a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
- He disclosed for the first time that Western partners were now discussing how to coordinate US and European forces to ensure security for Ukraine – to protect a potential peace.
His core point is that soon the country will "see an improvement".
Familiar Arguments
The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a while – less tense, perhaps, with more time to talk.
However, in spite of encountering demands from many directions for a bolder approach, with greater political vision, more vigour, more pace and more urgency, his points were well-known ones.
When he finds himself in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?
No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as planned.
The Prime Minister's problems are not only because governing is hard, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.
Controversies and Dangers
The PM expressed regret that he regretted saying he was "happy" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when statements he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.
Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.
And he is courting obvious political perils as the year progresses. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.
Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be comfortable with this kind of intervention seems implausible.
International Law and Brexit
He told me he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but the public "just do not have the full picture at the moment".
Critics called for him to criticise the action prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an clear view in Parliament in the near future.
There has also long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the results of Brexit.
The PM denies he's heading in that direction, but his new firmer plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the giant economic European market – will likely trigger accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to reverse the results that flowed from Brexit.
A move to integrate into more of the single market will please some on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to
