Theresa May could be a jam taster for Tesco when she steps down as PM, supermarket boss says Mrs May reportedly said earlier this year that she scrapes mould off her jam and finishes the jar instead of throwing the contents away

With just weeks to go until Theresa May hands over the reins of power to her successor as leader of the Conservative Party, the Prime Minister might well be casting her eye around for new career opportunities.

And while she might not be beating off prospective employers with a stick after her tumultuous three years in office, Mrs May has attracted the attention of at least one potential boss – the CEO of Tesco.

Tesco offer

Dave Lewis, who presides over the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, has suggested there may be a place within the company for Mrs May when she steps down as Prime Minister next month – as a jam taster.

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Speaking at Tesco’s Hertfordshire headquarters on Tuesday evening, Mr Lewis expressed admiration for the Prime Minister’s aversion to throwing away mouldy jam, an approach that chimes with the supermarket’s ambitious plans to help halve global food waste by 2030.

Mouldy jam

Earlier this year Mrs May reportedly told ministers that when she when she encounters mould in a jar of jam she prefers to scrape off the inedible parts and eat the rest of the contents to avoid wasting food.

Once the mould is removed, the rest of the jam is “perfectly edible”, Mrs May said, according to the Daily Mail.

Applauding the Prime Minister’s waste-not-want-not attitude, Mr Lewis said: “She could be a jam taster for us”.

Competition from Corbyn?

Jeremy Corbyn is also a fan of the sweet stuff, and is a keen jam-maker.

Asked at the time whether the Labour leader endorsed the Prime Minister’s “common sense” approach, a spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: “Jeremy’s love of both making and consuming jam is well known and he doesn’t ever allow it to get to the scraping-off stage.”

Mrs May would be one of around 330,000 employees at Tesco if she joined the company.

The supermarket sells 10m tonnes of food every year and since 2016 has introduced a series of initiatives aimed at eliminating edible waste from its UK retail operations. It says it has sent no food to landfill since 2009.