Trousergate Two! PM sees Fox in tights – but don’t mention Maggie
THERESA MAY has delivered a knock to Liam Fox’s ego by saying she could picture the International Trade Secretary in tights.
Mrs May’s latest trouser-related incident came when she was asked in an interview about her historical hero Elizabeth I – and whether that made Fox her modern-day Sir Francis Drake, the swashbuckling seaborne adventurer who was close to the Tudor court. In response the Prime Minister exclaimed: ‘Think about the tights!’
But Mrs May also showed irritation in the interview with the Financial Times at the mention of Britain’s only other female PM, saying that she disliked ‘lazy’ comparisons with Margaret Thatcher. ‘I’ve never thought of myself like anybody else, or as doing the job like anybody else,’ Mrs May said.
And while Thatcher was capable of being coquettish with her male Ministers, when Mrs May was asked whether she flirted with her colleagues, she responded by saying: ‘Perish the thought.’
The Prime Minister also revealed that her fashion sense, including her infamous ‘kitten heels’, has helped to attract new female talent into politics.
She recounted striking up a conversation in a Commons lift with a woman and asking about her ‘nice pair of shoes’.
Mrs May added: ‘She said she liked my shoes as well. And then she looked at me and said, “Your shoes got me into politics”… something that can make people feel that they can approach a politician, or that politicians are like them, not some different species, I think is very important.’
During the interview, Mrs May also said that it was crucial to trigger Article 50 to leave the EU as quickly as possible, ‘otherwise people will lose faith in their politicians, they think we’re trying to pull the wool over their eyes’.