How does our esteemed Prime Minister find the time to do it all? In between calling snap general elections, attempting to sail the ship that is Brexit into a safe port and quelling rebellious MPs every week, she’s also harbouring a sizeable cookbook obsession, with ‘over 150’ on her shelves. Leafing through recipe books (along with going on walks and watching American TV police drama NCIS) is how she unwinds after a day of shouting matches with other politicians. But where does this place her against the rest of the UK, and was this a good throwaway line that would make her audience empathise with her?
In one of our recent surveys, we asked a nationally representative sample of 3,000 people about the number of cookbooks they own. It seems Theresa May is putting them all to shame, with her 150+ library placing her in the very top percentile of cookbook owners. Only 2% of the people we asked had more than fifty, so if the Prime Minister is hoping to go down the ‘we’re not so different, you and I’ route and prove she has the common touch, she may have missed the mark. Especially when you consider nearly a fifth (19%) of the UK don’t have a single cookbook in their household.
The Prime Minister’s announcement is yet another sign of the cookbook imbalance plaguing our nation. According to our data, 7% of Brits own an incredible 40% of all the country’s cookbooks. And with today’s startling revelation, it seems the Prime Minister is certainly in the top 1%, hoarding every Nigella, Jamie and Hairy Biker she can get her hands on. We’d love to see what sorts of books she tends to go for.