A Number of within the Labour Party Seek Keir Starmer Gone. The Prime Minister Assures Interviewers He'll Survive – while the Economy Will Strengthen.
"I'll be positioned in the same office by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, joking that if our conversation was successful, he might invite us into his official residence for a follow-up chat next year.
There is rarely ever time off for leaders. Shortly before we sat down, Starmer had been in calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to work out exactly what had occurred in Venezuela, where his big friend, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.
When the discussion, which was much longer than normal, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.
A Refresh for the New Year
As the new year begins, Starmer appears to have had a degree of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.
This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the difficult tail end of 2025, a awful annus horribilis for him.
But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his political fate are poised to get better?
Internal Doubts
The uncomfortable reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs think he's not very good at his job. Several of them would rather take a risk and remove him in 2026.
However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.
On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the poll", insisting no one would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change leader.
"This is the battle of our times and I intend to guide the party," he affirmed.
The Spring Test
The challenge for the PM is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to protest, maybe too much, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.
Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.
Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no circumstances under which he would resign, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.
Predicting a Turnaround
He tried to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to change. He aimed to convince me, and the public, that this year would be a change.
The economy would strengthen despite rising unemployment, he claimed, when strategies the administration implemented during their initial choppy year began to bear fruit.
- He pledged to close asylum hotels ahead of the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a new date on that.
- He added too, with the caveat that it wasn't a certainty, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's comprehensive invasion.
- He revealed for the first time that Western allies were now discussing how to integrate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.
His central argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".
A Consistent Script
The prime minister may have communicated with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.
But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more urgency, his explanations were familiar ones.
Given that he is in this much political difficulty, does he need a different script?
No government, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, has 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 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 after an backlash when statements he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.
Starmer blamed "the system" 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 progresses. His friendship with the US president entails a new risk 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 his career, the idea he would be comfortable with these events seems unlikely.
International Law and Brexit
He stated he was a "lifelong proponent of international law" but we "just lack the complete details at the moment".
Some demanded denounce it before we spoke. And the administration is expected to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.
And there has long been growing desire in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.
The PM rejects he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete commitment to integrate further with the EU's single market – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely trigger protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to undo the results that flowed from Brexit.
A commitment to align with more of the single market will please a faction on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to
