Theresa May has admitted the Conservative Party wasn't ready for the snap General Election she decided to call.

The Prime Minister partly blamed the Tories' lack of preparedness for the 8 June vote - along with a failure to put across her message - for the party's disastrous result in losing their House of Commons majority.

In an interview with former Conservative leader Michael Howard for The House magazine, Mrs May suggested a "less centralised" Tory campaign would have been more successful.

Highlighting a failure of the Tories' central campaign to reflect "what's happening at the grassroots", Mrs May described an inability for local activists "to do what they wanted to do".

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She said: "Because by definition in a snap election you've not been able to prepare people for it.

"So out there people have to work quite quickly to put their local campaigns together, and you do get slightly more of a central approach.

"We need to look at that very carefully, and to make sure we get the connection between what people want to do locally and the central campaign."

The Prime Minister called the snap General Election after taking a walking holiday in Wales with her husband Philip.

He was among the very small number of Mrs May's confidantes to know of her decision to go to the country three years earlier than scheduled, before the Prime Minister announced it outside 10 Downing Street.

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Yet, despite calling the vote and the "presidential" style of the Tory campaign focusing almost solely on her own leadership, Mrs May claimed she was unable to fully set out her vision for Britain.

"When I came into Downing Street I stood on the steps and I set out my platform for the future," she said.

"That didn't come through in the election.

"The sense of a country that works for everyone, and the way that I wanted to take that forward."

The surprise popularity of Jeremy Corbyn on 8 June, who enjoyed greater support among younger voters, has led the Labour leader to declare his party are on the "threshold of power".

Mrs May suggested the election had shown rival parties were more effective at using social media to "create an atmosphere" around election campaigns than the Tories had been.