Did Prime Minister Theresa May copy her speech from The West Wing's Jed Bartlet?

After her cough-packed prankster-stricken, set-crumbling Conservative conference keynote address, you might think there’s little to link Theresa May and The West Wing’s President Bartlet. Not so. Although Bartlet was the head of the US and, well, fictional, yesterday May appeared to mirror a speech the President gave in the HBO drama.

The evidence? While urging her Conservative party to rally together, May said: “And it is when tested the most that we reach deep within ourselves and find that our capacity to rise to the challenge before us may well be limitless.”

And in the season four opener of the West Wing, Martin Sheen's character delivers very similar words in the aftermath of a university bombing: “Every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we’re reminded that that capacity may well be limitless.”

The resemblance did not escape the notice of Twitter...

Yet it’s not the first time Number 10 was influenced by The West Wing. After announcing Theresa May would be his successor, former Prime Minister David Cameron was heard humming a familiar theme tune…