Theresa May’s former communications director in No10 has said Donald Trump used antibac after shaking her hand – but not after shaking the hand of her male colleagues.

Katie Perrior, who is now chair of the iNHouse Communications, has spilled the inside details of meeting the President-elect back in 2017 – and has given some advice to Keir Starmer. In a piece for the Times, she explained how she and the team walked down a line to shake hands with the foreign leader in their first meeting after he won the 2016 US presidential election.

But she warned that Mr Trump appeared to have a particular problem with her. “Trump shook the hands of several of my male colleagues before shaking mine, then looked at his hand and decided to antibac it in front of everyone,” she said, before adding: “Some early advice for Starmer: if you want to make a lasting impression with Trump, take a strong male entourage to show you mean business. Ridiculous in 2024, but there you go.”

Speaking about dealing with Mr Trump in government, Ms Perrior said the President “bullied” his way through “nightmare” phone calls, “belittling” Mrs May. She also said he would “often” mention his pal Nigel Farage, “almost directing the PM to give Farage a role of some kind”. And she also revealed how Mr Trump had wanted streets lined with the public waving American flags when he visited the UK, “not realising that we can’t make our citizens do this (it’s not North Korea)”.

Looking back after Mr Trump won the US election again on Tuesday, Ms Perrior explained how vital it had been to secure an in-person meeting between Mrs May and Mr Trump as soon as possible after his 2016 win – especially as the former PM had been low down in the pecking order to get a phone call with the newly elected US President. She said it was a “triumph” to secure Mrs May’s visit – the first of any foreign leader – to the White House a week after Mr Trump’s inauguration in January 2017.

After initial suggestions the pair would have tea in the White House without journalists’ access, Ms Perrior said she was forced to invoke a Love Actually reference to back up her plan to get the ex-PM to agree to a press conference.

She went on: “This back and forth went on for some time and was hugely frustrating. It got to the point where I was informing Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, that the PM really wanted a press conference while at the same time telling the PM that the president’s media team also wanted a press conference. Neither of which was strictly true — but needs must and all that.”

After the presser Mrs May, Mr Trump and their teams had lunch – something Ms Perriror said she had been “dreading”. The comms chief admitted journalists at the time got a stripped back summary of the lunch that said it was a productive chat about national security and Brexit.

In reality, she said, details about “how Trump behaved and the way he spoke to his colleagues” were left out. She said he disagreed with Vice-President Mike Pence and talked at Mrs May about abortion, a subject on which he was “desperate for our approval”.

Ms Perrior said the trip was a success – despite the infamous photo being taken of Mr Tump holding Mrs May’s hand. She also added that a cat jumping on her face at 3am as she stayed in the ambassador’s residence was not a high point.

But she warned the new Labour Prime Minister: “So what advice for Starmer, other than taking that male-heavy entourage when visiting the States? Trump only thinks in ‘wins’ — and for him to win, that means you lose. He attacks every interaction in the same manner. Starmer can decide to be a loser, or strategically position it so that Trump looks like he wins but Starmer actually clocks up a few victories himself. “