HOW NAUGHTY
Theresa May claims the worst thing she ever did as a child was run through a farmer’s field
The Prime Minister also defended the Government's anti-terror policies in an ITV interview
THE WORST thing Theresa May has ever done is run through a farmer's field of wheat as a child, she claimed tonight.
The Prime Minister was grilled on her early life as a "bookish" only child - but refused to admit to doing anything seriously disobedient.
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In the ITV interview with Julie Etchingham, Mrs May also defended the Government's terror policies and vowed to prosecuting British jihadists returning from Syria.
Asked about her childhood, the PM admitted to being a solitary girl who loved to read.
She said: "You can’t get away from the fact that I was a vicar’s daughter.
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"I was quite, sort of, bookish as a child - I enjoyed going to school, I enjoyed reading books, I enjoyed learning.
"I was an only child, so of course I didn’t have brothers and sisters who I was playing with and sometimes had to just go out and sort of do things on my own."
Ms Etchingham then asked: "What’s the naughtiest thing you ever did?"
Mrs May laughed nervously and replied: "Do you know, I'm not quite sure.
"Nobody's ever perfectly behaved, are they? I have to confess when me and my friends used to run through the fields of wheat, the farmers weren't too pleased about that."
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The future PM was brought up in an Oxfordshire village where her father Hubert Brasier was the local vicar.
An old schoolfriend of the PM reminisced in the interview about standing against the young Mrs May in a mock school election - and beating her into second place.
In the broadcast Mrs May also spoke of the "tremendous shock" of losing both her parents in her 20s - and paid tribute to the support given to her by her husband Philip.
And she talked about her warm memories of joining her vicar father and the rest of her family in intimate prayer sessions.
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Mrs May said the prayers were "really important moments in terms of us as a family, but hugely impressive in the sense of the family coming together for those few moments in a very quiet space of the church when everyone else had left the church".
During , Mrs May confirmed that temporary exclusion orders intended to bar extremists from Britain have been used just once since they were introduced in 2015.
She pointed out that they are only intended for cases where it is impossible to prosecute suspects under terror laws.
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The Prime Minister said: "The point about the temporary exclusion order is that it is an additional power for our police to use when they believe it is operationally right to do so.
"So for some of those people returning from abroad, if they've been involved in terrorist activity, if there's evidence for prosecution, they will be prosecuted.
"Believe you me, when we can prosecute, we do."
Questioned about whether policies on issues such as social care and free school meals heralded the return of "the nasty party", Mrs May replied: "No, not at all."
She added: "What I'm doing in the manifesto and in the policies we're putting forward is addressing some of the key challenges faced by the country over the next five years."
She also defended her record as Home Secretary despite criticism over cuts to police numbers and sky-high immigration.
But Mrs May refused to reveal what she really thinks about Nigel Farage - she said: "I don't spend a lot of time thinking about him, what I think about is the issue.
"A lot of people were involved in the work that led to the decision that the British took in terms of the European Union referendum."
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