Theresa May has admitted she needed a “stiff drink” after her calamitous Tory conference speech.
The Prime Minister said husband Philip had been a “bit worried” about her safety after a prankster confronted her during the address but insisted she had never felt unsafe.
Mrs May said she wished she had taken more cough sweets on stage but had never contemplated giving up.
She told LBC: “I think I probably needed a stiff drink afterwards.”
Comic Lee Nelson, real name Simon Brodkin, handed the Prime Minister a fake P45 unemployment notice and joked that Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had asked him to perform the stunt.
Mrs May said there had been a moment where she thought “has something gone wrong, am I supposed to be stopping?” but then realised it was not someone official.
“I thought I’d just carry on,” she said.
Mrs May said she did not think “at any time” about stopping the speech when she was then hit by a persistent cough that left her struggling for most of the hour-long event.
Theresa May coughs during her speech at the Tory Party Conference
The PM said her husband was “obviously feeling for me” as she carried on.
“I think he had been a bit worried about the individual who approached me, probably more so than I had been on my position up there on the podium.
“As everybody now knows, he gave me a really big hug because he just wanted to say well done for getting through it.”
The first caller, Helen from Horsham, asked the PM “why on earth didn’t you have some cough remedies with you?” saying she “didn’t seem very prepared” after struggling for days.
Mrs May said: “I had had a cough sweet before I went on and had had some cough medicine earlier, so I suppose I just thought it would probably be OK.”
The PM said the impression she had been given by voters out on the doorstep was “good on you for carrying on”.
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