‘The Greens are anti-Nato and think it’s all right to sell drugs. That’s nuts’

Keir Starmer says the thing he misses most as prime minister is taking long, solitary hikes in the countryside.

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Keir Starmer says the thing he misses most as prime minister is taking long, solitary hikes in the countryside. "Going for a walk on your own and clearing your head, being out there with nature, is something I really enjoy.

The peace, quiet, taking in a wider world I've always loved it," he says.

"I don't moan about what comes with being prime minister. I want to do it, I love doing it, it's a great privilege and therefore I don't list all the various things that can no longer be done. But that one..." He pauses. "Theoretically, I can go for a walk but the police team would come with me. I don't feel that when they're walking just behind me I can ignore them and therefore I start talking to them. It's not the same as going for a walk on your own." We are in Cardiff where Starmer had hoped to take me on a ramble across the Welsh hills near his grandmother's home, or a stroll where his wife, Victoria, went to university. As if to prove his point, security concerns and rain mean we have to stay inside the children's centre he is visiting. But it is the conversation that counts, so we make the most of our walk around the corridors and classrooms.