"I'll remain in the same position by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer stated, joking that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome us into Number 10 for another talk next year.
For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, Starmer had been on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to understand exactly what had transpired in Venezuela, where his key ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.
By the time our lengthy talk, which was far more extended than usual, had ended, Maduro had been indicted in New York.
But as the new year begins, Sir Keir seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.
This appeared to have resulted in better spirits than at the difficult end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.
But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they believe his political fate are about to turn around?
The uncomfortable reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out this year.
But Sir Keir was rejecting the idea when we spoke on Saturday morning.
Repeatedly he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", arguing no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 may be for Labour to switch its leader.
"We are in the struggle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he affirmed.
The issue for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He attempted to argue, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.
True – in part. But even though he may not want to admit it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.
Despite this, Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would walk away, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, should those elections be catastrophic for Labour.
He attempted to rationalise his unpopularity by saying the public was understandably anxious for things to change. He sought to assure the interviewer, and the nation, that the coming months would be a change.
The economy would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when policies the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to take effect.
His core argument is that soon the country will "see an improvement".
The PM may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a while – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.
However, in spite of encountering demands from within his own party for a more decisive approach, with greater political clarity, more vigour, more speed and more immediacy, his explanations were repeated ones.
When he finds himself in this much political peril, is a different approach required a different script?
No government, and especially not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, has everything its own way.
The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.
The PM told me that he was sorry for saying he was "pleased" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an backlash when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.
Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.
And he is courting evident political risks as the year gets going. His close relationship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's military action on Venezuela.
Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.
He stated he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but the public "just lack the full picture at the moment".
Some wanted him to denounce it prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an explicit view in Parliament in the coming days.
There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the consequences of Brexit.
The PM denies he's pursuing that, but his new more concrete plan to align more closely with the EU's single market – the vast economic European market – will likely provoke accusations that he is breaking his vow never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.
A move to cosy up to more of the single market will satisfy many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to
Milan is een ervaren opticien met een passie voor visuele technologie en klantgerichtheid.
