Astronaut Peake meets the new prime minister

The 44-year-old, from Westbourne, near Emsworth, was introduced to the new Prime Minister just over four weeks after returning from his six-month mission to the International Space Station.

Major Peake, a graduate of the University of Portsmouth, was pictured talking to Mrs May after arriving hand-in-hand with his wife Rebecca.

Last week, the father-of-two said he was feeling ‘great’ a month after returning from his mission.

He said that getting back his sense of balance had been the most difficult part of readjusting to gravity on Earth. Major Peake admitted that the first three days were ‘fairly uncomfortable’ because of vertigo.

He also took time to speak to schoolchildren who had also been invited to the event at Downing Street.

The astronaut was making his first public appearance in the UK since landing in Kazakhstan on June 18.