Keir Starmer is just beginning. Three months. I mean, come on. Give the guy a chance! - Sir Tony Blair

As I sit opposite Sir Tony Blair in his private office at his Institute for Global Change in Fitzrovia, only 100 yards or so from David Beckham's Studio 99 production company, I ask if Sir Keir Starmer is good enough to last two terms, or even three?

- DYLAN JONES

"Yes, of course, yes, he's just beginning," he snaps. "I said to someone the other day who was expressing anxiety about the Government, 'When was the election? Was it July 4?' Yes. I said, 'Three months. I mean, come on. Give the guy a chance, he's only just started!"" The look he gives me when I have the temerity to ask about Starmer is the same one he gave me 20 years ago when I interviewed him at Downing Street and asked him if he'd read Piers Morgan's diaries. "How on earth do you think I've got the time to read a book by Piers Morgan?" he said, incredulously.

What is his status report on the Starmer government, three months in? "It's all about whether they can deliver the plan they've got, whether these missions can be delivered or not," says Blair. "It's going to be tough, because of the environment they've inherited this time." Is Starmer a good leader? "Well, I'm fully supportive of him, I want him to succeed." When I suggest the public hate the fact they accepted so many freebies from Lord Alli (whom Blair ennobled in 1998 as part of New Labour attempts to shake up the upper chamber), especially as they campaigned on a wave of sanctimony, he interrupts me.

"I've known Waheed for over 30 years. He's never asked for anything from the Labour Party.

I mean, he's a highly successful entrepreneur, he supports the Labour Party, and one of the most decent people you could ever meet. I don't want to get into all that. It's just the way it is." What advice specifically would he give Starmer right now? "It's not my job to advise. He's perfectly capable of doing it on his own." But you've just written a book for him, I say.

"No, I didn't write the book for him, I wrote the book for leaders. And, by the way, the lessons of leadership are the same whether you're running a country, a company, or coaching a football team.