PM jokes she called snap election to get out of speech to journalists

Theresa May joked she may call another general election following a walking holiday in Easter, taking a rare opportunity to torment her adversaries in the press.

The Prime Minister infamously called her botched snap election after a walking holiday in spring 2017.

On Wednesday, she joked during a speech to Westminster journalists that she only did it to get out of a speech to "the lobby" - political journalists that work in Parliament - at the Westminster Correspondents dinner.

And in a rare opportunity to turn the tables on her weary tormentors, she told 2018's gathering: "I was looking forward to this event so much that I called a general election to get out of it.

"But I can't pull that stunt two years in a row.

"Or can I?

"I am, after all, going walking in Wales at Easter."

Mrs May, who has been under fire for apparently exercising little control over her Cabinet, spent much of the speech mocking her ministers.

While acknowledging her own "Maybot" moniker, awarded for her supposed wooden style of answering questions, she joked that if Boris Johnson was a phone app it would carry the warning "contains adult content".

Meanwhile, his Cabinet Brexit nemesis, Chancellor Philip Hammond was "like a drier, less frivolous version of LinkedIn," while the Brexit Secretary was described as David "Mad Max" Davis.

The only Cabinet minister who does have his own app also came under fire, with Mrs May describing her worry at Matt Hancock's need to "track your location, access your photos" and the error message "there is a fault with Matt Hancock".

She joked about her predecessor David Cameron being "snowed into his wheely shed", recounting his worries about "ambitious female Home Secretaries" taking his jobs, as she nodded to Amber Rudd.

And she praised Westminster journalists for electing two female chairs of its institutions - the parliamentary lobby and Press Gallery - for the first time.