Ahead of President Joe Biden’s high-stakes news conference, his first since last month’s dismal debate performance with Donald Trump, Britain’s new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has denied that Biden is senile or too old to be president of the United States.

Starmer insisted the president was “on really good form” during their hour-long bilateral meeting at the White House yesterday.

Biden is under increasing pressure to withdraw from the November presidential election, following an incoherent debate performance last month that put his mental acuity under the spotlight. A growing number of Democrats have called on Biden to step aside from the presidential race.

Asked during a sit-down interview with BBC on if the president had appeared “senile” during their meeting, Starmer rejected the suggestion, saying Biden was “absolutely across the detail.”

It was the first time the U.K’s new PM, who was elected last week and is in Washington for the NATO summit, had met Biden.

“We were going at pace through a number of issues, which was really important to me, because obviously, it was my first opportunity to have a bilateral like that. And he showed incredible leadership,” Starmer said.

“We’ve covered a lot of ground, strategic ground, international stuff … He was on good form. And of course … we went straight from that to the dinner that he hosted.

“So I was actually really pleased to have the opportunity to be clear about a special relationship and about our long standing commitment to NATO at this really important time.”