David Cameron jokes about 'hip-hoppy' Beyonce, Wolf Hall on TV and 'the chillax playlist on Spotify' in remarkable series of radio interviews

The PM even threw in an impromptu reference to Tony Benn and 'the ishoos' for good measure

David Cameron was once described by an ally as a master of the art of “chillaxing” – and he may have betrayed more details about what he does in his spare time during a series of remarkably relaxed interviews this morning.

Speaking about an incident in Cabinet last week when he chided the chief whip Michael Gove over his blaring smartwatch, the Prime Minister told LBC Radio he “didn’t think” the ringtone was a Beyonce hit – adding that it sounded like something “from the chillax playlist on Spotify”.

Presenter Nick Ferrari played some excerpts from what Mr Gove’s wife Sarah Vine called “Beyonce’s oeuvre”, after she claimed the noise had emanated from a Pebble Smartwatch she bought him for Christmas.

Unable to identify any of the Beyonce tracks involved, Mr Cameron said: “My memory is it sounded like something from the 'chillax' playlist on Spotify. That's all a bit more hip-hoppy, and I don't think it was that.

“But it didn't last very long. We weren't playing 'beat the intro' (a reference to a music quiz game recently released on the Wii console). We were trying to have a Cabinet meeting, let's be clear," he added.

Perhaps like Ed Miliband (or a minister from The Thick of It), Mr Cameron has been briefed on talking points from popular culture – in another jokey exchange he said he couldn’t blame people who wanted to watch “an episode of Wolf Hall” instead of a TV debate.

And when again pressed on the subject of his involvement in the TV debates on the BBC’s Today programme, the Prime Minister threw in an unlikely comic reference to the late Labour stalwart Tony Benn.

“The debates are better held outside the election campaign,” he said, “… because no one talks about anything else. Indeed, this interview is rather proving that the BBC can’t wait to get on and talk about the debates rather than the issues.

He joked: “We should get on with these debates so that then we can have an election campaign where, as Tony Benn would say, we can talk about the ishoos.”