PHILIP May is made to do the “boys’ jobs” around the house, his wife, the Prime Minister, has revealed in a TV appearance aimed at softening her tough political image during the General Election campaign.

He also revealed in his first public interview how it was love at first sight when he met a young Theresa Brasier at Oxford University.

Appearing on BBC One’s The One Show, he explained how the “boys’ jobs” in question included taking the dustbins out.

The City financier, 59, said: “I get to decide when I take the bins out, not if I take the bins out."

Mrs May jumped in to say: "There's boy jobs and girl jobs."

Mr May added: "I do the traditional boy jobs, by and large."

On Twitter, Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, reacted somewhat negatively, saying: “Seconds in to The One Show, the Prime Minister tells the country there are ‘boy jobs and girl jobs’ at home - I despair.”

The PM’s performance on The One Show sofa was rather stilted but was aimed at giving an insight into the Tory leader’s personal life to a less politically-minded audience; Mrs May has refused to do any live head-to-head debates with Jeremy Corbyn.

Questioned by presenters Alex Jones and Matt Baker, the PM revealed how she and her husband were once victims of "fake news".

"Way back when I was wanting to be selected for a seat, one of the newspapers reported I was going to have trouble being selected to fight a seat as a Conservative candidate because of my new baby. Well, we didn't have a baby.

"We didn't think any more of it until that afternoon, my mother-in-law rang..."

Mr May interjected: "My mum rang. She thought perhaps there was something we hadn't told her."

The Tory leader, who has spoken publicly about her and her husband’s regret at not being able to have children, said: "She was disappointed."

Asked about what their first impression of each other was when they met at Oxford – they were introduced at a college disco by mutual friend Benazir Bhutto, later to become Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr May purred: “What a lovely girl. And she still is.”

Admitting he immediately fancied her, he went on: “It was love at first sight; yes absolutely.”

Mrs May chipped in: “And likewise.”

The programme showed old photographs of the couple’s wedding, conducted by the PM’s Anglican vicar father Hubert Brasier in his Oxfordshire church in 1980; only a year before his death in a car crash.

"It brings back huge memories of a very happy childhood," said Mrs May, looking at the photograph.

"We are talking about life in a vicarage, which is slightly different. It's just very, very happy, very stable. I was very fortunate.”

She went on: “Crucially from my parents, they were very much of the view that it was up to me what I wanted to do. They didn't say: 'You can't do that because you're a girl', or 'You can't do this', which is great."

Asked what the downsides of being married to the nation’s leader were, Mr May said it was an “enormous privilege” for him to be there alongside his wife doing such an enormously important job and to meet such interesting people.

“I get to do some things I wouldn't otherwise do. It is a huge privilege. There isn't really a downside."

He joked: "If you're the kind of man who expects his tea to be on the table at six o'clock every evening, you could be a disappointed man."

Mr May also revealed how his wife had wanted to be Prime Minister for at least a decade and had "never heard Theresa say she wanted to be prime minister until she was well-established in the Shadow Cabinet". His wife had her first Shadow Cabinet role in June 1999 when William Hague was Tory leader.

Asked about the description of her as a "bloody difficult woman" by former cabinet colleague Ken Clarke, the PM said: "When you are in negotiations you need to be tough and it's right to be tough sometimes, particularly when you are doing something for the country."

She conceded that the UK's decision to pull out of the European Union might rebound against Britain's entry in the other big upcoming vote: Eurovision.

Asked if Britain would leave Eurovision, she replied: "No. Although I'm tempted to say in the current circumstances I'm not sure how many votes we will get."