Sir Keir Starmer fought back tears as he spoke about losing his mother during an in-depth interview with Piers Morgan for Life Stories.
The leader of the Labour party sat down with former Good Morning Britain host Piers to offer a revealing insight into the man behind the politician.
Throughout their conversation, Keir reflected on his childhood in Surrey and his mother's battle with a debilitating illness, and also discussed pivotal moments in his career in politics, culminating in his appointment as Labour leader in April 2020.
On Tuesday's Good Morning Britain, they showed a clip of the interview which featured Keir recalling his mother's death.
"My dad was totally devoted to her and I remember being at home and he phoned and he said, 'your mum’s not gonna make it, can you tell the others', and that hit me," the 58-year-old said.
Piers then asked: "Was it cruel of your father to make you do that? To do it that way?"
Choking back tears, Keir replied: "No, he wasn't gonna leave her side, there was no way he was coming out of that hospital, even to his own kids."
Piers then added: "Did you know at the end that she was dying? Was you able to say everything you wanted to say?" to which Keir said: "No."
He was then asked what he would liked to have said to her, to which he simply replied: "I love you."
Sir Keir's mother Josephine died just weeks before he was sworn in as an MP in 2015 and never got to see him in office.
His mother battled with Still’s Disease, a rare and incurable condition which causes painful swelling of joints and organs, for more than 50 years.
During the chat with Piers, he told how his father gave up on life and became a recluse after his wife's death, saying: "When she died, it broke him. She was his whole life."
Sir Keir has previously said he spent a lot of time in high dependency units as a child with his mother and described watching NHS staff saving her life as an "incredible thing".
Piers Morgan's Life Stories airs tonights at 9:30pm on ITV.
