Starmer makes tandoori salmon on TV cookery show

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has prepared a tandoori salmon meal on a TV cookery programme.

Sir Keir said he prioritises spending time with his kids and leaves politics at the door when he comes home on a Friday night.

He told Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch he would be going to support Arsenal with his son as the Premier League title race reaches an exciting conclusion.

“I think it’s going to be really tough, I’ll be there in the stands with my boy, he said.

“The atmosphere at the Emirates will be brilliant. If there’s a draw up at (Manchester) City it will be absolutely incredible.”

As he approached the kitchen, Sir Keir was invited to “cross the floor” by host Tim Lovejoy – a reference to recent Conservative defections to the Labour Party.

As he cut salmon and blended a marinade, The Labour leader told the show he loves cooking and finds it “really relaxing”.

He said: “Usually on a Saturday evening I’ll cook.”

Sir Keir added that he is “very strict” about making time for his wife Victoria, 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter.

“We can go away but you’re never away from the phone, you’re never away from something happening,” he said.

“But on a Friday night, I will say to the team I’m not doing any meetings after 6pm because we’re going to be at home with the kids and we will spend that time at home with the kids.

“I don’t want to be one of these blokes, and it is normally blokes, who says in 10 years time says ‘I wish I’d spent more time with my kids’.

“I also think you’re a better decision maker for doing it. When I walk in the door, any baggage of leader of the Opposition or leader of the Labour Party always has to be left at the door.

“I walk through the door and I’m dad. And that is fantastic.”

Sir Keir said he believes MPs’ treatment of each other in recent years has become “too toxic and too divided”, and worries about the impact becoming Prime Minister could have on his children.

In 2014, the then deputy prime minister Nick Clegg was criticised for appearing on Sunday Brunch during the international crises over Ukraine and Gaza.

One Lib Dem activist was quoted in the national press as saying: “As the world burned, Nick Clegg cooked.”

Last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appeared on ITV’s Loose Women and vowed to stay on as an MP even if his ruling Conservative Party loses the next general election.