Theresa May says she has stopped reading morning newspapers as it is not good for her ‘wellbeing’

Theresa May has stopped reading newspapers in the morning to preserve her “wellbeing”, it has emerged.

The PM instead now relies on a daily summary from aides at her regular 8.30am meeting in No10 with them.

A senior Downing Street figure told The Sun the decision for Mrs May not to plough through the newsprint is “to protect her from a daily diatribe of woes”.

The source added: “None of that is any good for her self belief or wellbeing.

“Occasionally she might dip into The Times, but she’s stopped reading the others”.

The PM has taken an almost daily onslaught from Brexiteer Tory critics lead by former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson since she unveiled her Chequers plan for a deal in July.

Previous Tory Prime Ministers have also been tormented by unfavourable press coverage during their reigns.

Margaret Thatcher also gave up reading the papers towards the end of her 11 year tenure in No10, relying instead on her trusted press secretary Bernard Ingham’s daily summary.

But her successor Sir John Major insisted on reading them all right up to his downfall in 1997, a move that left him “deranged”, aides at the time said.

Mrs May also suffered a major run in with Britain’s TV news stations last night.

All the networks accused her of acting like US President Donald Trump after she refused to be interviewed by a series of smaller broadcasters at the Tories’ conference.

In an act of solidarity, they signed a joint letter to No10 to bitterly complain about her decision to dump GMB, Channel 4 and Channel 5 News this year, and only speak to the BBC, ITV1 and Sky News last night.

The letter was signed by De Pear, Channel 5 News acting editor Jess Bulman, BBC News head of newsgathering Jonathan Munro, ITV News acting editor Rachel Corp, Sky News director of newsgathering Jonathan Levy and ITN chief executive John Hardie.

The TV bosses said: “For a functioning democracy it is vital that in turn the politicians and in particular the leaders and even Prime Ministers are also questioned and held to account in one-to-one interviews.

“We have already seen attempts to exclude some journalistic organisations in America from press conferences, attempts which were resisted by the solidarity of the broadcasters who refused to allow it.

“We hope you will take this into consideration and make the Prime Minister available for interview with all the UK’s national broadcasters.”