'He's toast': Inside the press room after Biden gaffe as Starmer shows solidarity

US President Joe Biden mistakenly calls Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "President Putin"

I was standing in the middle of the vast press room at Nato's 75th summit watching the event with President Joe Biden and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the giant screens, when the mistake was made.

"He's toast," muttered one man. As journalists crowded around a small screen to see it again, one woman turned away. "I can't even watch," she said.

But we did watch again. At a special event to mark the issue at the heart of the Nato discussions - Russian aggression against Ukraine - Biden had done the unthinkable: accidentally called President Zelenskyy, "President Putin" and standing in front of rows of world leaders.

My eyes had drifted to the back row of world leaders' and Keir Starmer, who had - just that morning - told us journalists that Biden was on "good form".

I had asked the new PM about George Clooney's suggestion that Biden was too old to run again. Starmer had just spent a lot of time close up to the American president - did he agree?

"We were supposed to have 45 minutes for bilateral yesterday. We ended up having the best part of an hour. We went through a whole range of issues at pace because obviously I wanted to cover a lot of ground," Starmer said.

"The president was on good form and it was a really good opportunity for us to reaffirm the special relationship." I pointed out that Labour was promising an age limit for the House of Lords of 80 - meaning Biden would not qualify.

"Our decision on the House of Lords is all to do with the numbers because the House of Lords is simply far too big," he said.

Reaction to Biden's gaffe at the Nato summit has been "pretty intense", as ITV News' Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana reports

So what would Starmer say now?

In the Ukraine event, a camera swung to close in on him, but there was no obvious reaction. Now Starmer had to rush over to a room set out for a final press conference. I rushed down there to get in place to ask a question.

Starmer began with a speech about his time at the summit, arguing that he had travelled three and a half thousand miles in his first week as PM because nothing was more important than national security, especially now.

"The generational threat of Russia, aided by the likes of North Korea and Iran. Conflicts - rage across the Middle East and North Africa. The challenge of China. Terrorism," the PM said.

He argued that international institutions had been undermined and that his Labour government would try to rebuild that reputation and lead the world on issues like defence and climate change.

He welcomed 23 Nato countries now meeting the target of spending 2% of GDP on defence, up from three a decade ago but said Britain would meet 2.55 (although without a timeline and with the condition that it was subject to fiscal rules).

But with one mistake Biden had shifted the focus on the questions, and Starmer knew it. "The calls for President Biden not to run again will intensify tonight," I said - arguing it would distract from the challenges he had set out.

"Would you urge his critics to hold back?" I also asked if - on a personal level - he was mortified.

Starmer had pretty quickly come up with as good an answer as he could - arguing that the summit had been a success, including in terms of identifying the challenges of today and providing support to Ukraine.

The president had led that effort, he argued, and "he deserves credit for that" as the single most important thing from the council.

The importance of the special relationship was clear in every response relating to Biden, although Starmer did not refer to (or diminish) the gaffe itself.

What was clear was the importance of international relationships to the PM.

Watch some of Joe Biden's most eye-catching slip-ups in front of a microphone

Downing Street sources said Starmer used the summit as an opportunity to carry out several meetings with world leaders that would have taken months to arrange.

An aide said: "It was great to have the ability to see so many leaders here in the first full week in office and shortcut a process that could otherwise have taken months to get around everyone.

"It meant we could make the most of the momentum coming out of the election and while there was maximum interest in Keir to raise all the strategic issues we wanted to and reset from our predecessors."

Have you heard our podcast Talking Politics? Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda in every episode…