"I will be positioned in this seat by 2027," the Prime Minister remarked, adding that if our discussion proceeded smoothly, he might invite the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up chat next year.
There is rarely ever downtime for prime ministers. Shortly before we sat down, Sir Keir had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to decipher exactly what had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.
When the discussion, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.
But as the year starts, Sir Keir appears to have had a kind of a refresh. Perhaps even just a bit of downtime with his family at Chequers, the prime minister's official country residence.
That certainly seemed to have resulted in a more positive mood than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful year politically for him.
But are he and his colleagues deluding themselves if they believe his fortunes are poised to turn around?
The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and get him out in 2026.
But Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.
On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the general election", maintaining nobody would strip his term from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to change its leader.
"We are in the battle of our generation and I intend to lead us," he affirmed.
The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be judged far sooner than then – in a huge set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps too much, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.
Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to acknowledge it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.
This did not stop Sir Keir stating that there were no circumstances under which he would walk away, should a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.
He attempted to explain his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally anxious for things to change. He tried to convince me, and the public, that the coming months would be distinct.
The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he argued, when plans the administration enacted during their initial choppy year began to take effect.
His big message is that in 2026 the country will "reach a turning point".
The prime minister may have communicated with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.
However, in spite of encountering calls from within his own party for a bolder strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more speed and more immediacy, his arguments were familiar ones.
Given that he is in considerable political peril, is a different approach required a different script?
No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for many months, gets everything its as desired.
The Prime Minister's problems are not only because government is challenging, but because he and his team have erred, including in the recent past.
The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an controversy when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.
Sir Keir blamed "the process" for not catching what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying not my fault.
And he is courting clear political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president takes on a new jeopardy after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.
Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the notion he would be content with these events seems unlikely.
He stated he was a "lifelong advocate of international law" but we "simply lack the full picture at the moment".
Some demanded criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the administration is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the coming days.
There has also always been bubbling tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.
Sir Keir denies he's heading in that direction, but his new more concrete plan to move closer with the EU's single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his vow never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.
A move to integrate into more of the single market will delight many on his backbenches, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to
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