Theresa May has said one of her favourite pastimes is cooking because “you get to eat is as well as make it”.

In a Q&A with factory workers in Gateshead, the prime minister was asked what she does in her spare time.

She was asked: “You probably have world’s most stressful job at the moment, how do you cope and how do you unwind?”

May said there were “several things” she liked to do when not at work.

“l like walking, so we, my husband and I we enjoy going walking when we can,” she said.

The prime minister famously decided to call her disastrous 2017 snap general election while on a walking holiday in Wales.

May added: “I enjoy cooking, which has a benefit, you get to eat it as well as make it.

“I have over 150 cookbooks. I spend a lot of time looking at cookbooks.”

The prime minister also said she liked to watch “the American series NCIS” when she could find the time.

May held a meeting of her Cabinet in Newcastle today as she grappled with continuing tensions within the Tory party over her Brexit strategy.