Some within the Labour Party Desire Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Assures Me He'll Survive – while Britain's Economic Outlook Is Set to Strengthen.
"I will be positioned in this office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, adding that if our interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for another talk in 2026.
For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for those in the top job. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and working to decipher what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.
By the time our lengthy talk, which was much longer than normal, had concluded, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.
A Refresh for the New Year
But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just a little relaxation with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.
That certainly seemed to have put him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a terrible political year for him.
But are he and his supporters deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are about to get better?
Party Concerns
The harsh reality for the prime minister is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather take a risk and oust him this year.
But Sir Keir was dismissing such talk when we spoke on Saturday morning.
Repeatedly he insisted he'd be "evaluated at the poll", insisting nobody would strip his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.
"This is the battle of our lifetime and I intend to lead us," he declared.
The May Elections
The issue for the prime minister is that he will be assessed long before then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.
Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.
Despite this, Sir Keir stating that there were no situation under which he would step down, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be disastrous for Labour.
Promises of Improvement
He sought to rationalise his low poll ratings by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to get better. He tried to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.
The economy would improve despite rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to show results.
- He vowed to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
- He said too, with the qualification that it wasn't a done deal, that a peace deal in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
- He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now considering how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to protect a possible peace.
His central point is that this year the country will "reach a turning point".
Political Challenges
The prime minister may have spoken with renewed vitality than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.
However, in spite of encountering calls from various quarters for a bolder approach, with increased political vision, more urgency, more speed and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.
Given that he is in this much 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.
Sir Keir's problems are not just because government is difficult, but because he and his team have made mistakes, including in the recent past.
Regrets and Risks
The prime minister admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" 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 blamed "procedures" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.
And he is facing evident political perils as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.
Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be content with such action seems unlikely.
Policy Stances and Pressures
He asserted he was a "career-long champion of international law" but we "simply haven't got the complete details at the moment".
Critics called for him to condemn it prior to the interview. And the government is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.
And there has long been simmering tension in the Labour ranks to reverse or renegotiate some of the outcomes of Brexit.
Sir Keir rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete pledge to move closer with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will likely provoke accusations that he is going back on his vow never to try to overturn the results that flowed from Brexit.
A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will please many on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to
