THERESA May lit up social media with her daggy dance moves, but she’s not the only politician to have looked cringe-worthy while attempting to bust a groove.

From the much-loved Barack Obama, to Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin, many world leaders have tried to commandeered the dance floor.

And closer to home, who could forget Clive Palmer’s painful twerking attempt. Even Peter Costello once struggled to mimic the smooth moves of former Environment Minister and Midnight Oil star Peter Garrett.

Take a look at these pollies shamelessly showing off their spontaneous routines.

The Sun reports that the British Prime Minister’s bizarre dancing saw her compared to Peter Crouch’s bad robot dance and an excruciating scene from The Inbetweeners Movie.

One website referred to her as dancing like a “baby robot giraffe” as she joined in with a group of schoolchildren in Cape Town this morning.

She was at the ID Mkize School on the first leg of a three-day trade trip to Africa, but all anyone was talking about on Twitter was her awkward swaying from side to side caught on camera.

Mrs May, whose stiff style has seen her labelled the “May-bit”, was ridiculed for her robotic style of dancing, with One Twitter user saying: “I think someone forgot to oil her?”

A number of remixes were also posted on social media, with the PM’s dance set to dubstep music, Status Quo, the Notorious BIG, and even David Brent’s Equality Street parody song.

But some people were less critical, suggesting their own dad dancing at such an event would be no better than her attempt.

And her South African hosts seemed to be impressed with her enthusiasm, as she later joined in with a second dance during her visit.

At a packed school assembly, she told the pupils: “Can I thank all those young people who were involved in the performances outside who welcomed me.”

The PM used her visit to the school to announce that the Chevening scholarship would be opened up to 100 more of “Africa’s brightest young people”.

She said: “What I see before me in this hall today is the future of South Africa.”

She added: “I’d like to think that some of you, when you get older, if you’re thinking of going to university that you might think of coming to one of our great universities in the UK.

“We’ve got a program, it’s called the Chevening scholarship, which helps people to do that and I’m pleased to say today we’re announcing that we’re going to open up scholarships to 100 more of Africa’s brightest young people.”