Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said his favourite biscuit is shortbread, but that he generally avoided the teatime treats because he was "totally anti-sugar on health grounds".

Mr Corbyn was the latest in a long line of politicians to be grilled over their biscuit choices by users of parenting website Mumsnet, as he took part in an hour-long live webchat.

He avoided the biscuit blunders made by Gordon Brown, who failed to answer the question at all, or Andy Burnham, who said he preferred "beer and chips and gravy".

But his answer still seemed to infuriate some Mumsnet posters, who accused him of opting to answer easy questions rather than address queries about anti-Semitism and transgender rights.

Setting out his position on the biscuit issue, Mr Corbyn said: "I'm totally anti-sugar on health grounds, so eat very few biscuits, but if forced to accept one, it's always a pleasure to have a shortbread."

One user, under the name TheBigDog, instantly responded: "You answered a question on biscuits but avoided any slightly challenging question? Are you really PM material?"

And another, GloGirl, said: "That's the most miserable response to the biscuit question I've ever read."

One poster, using the handle Youarenotprepared, said: "He doesn't even eat biscuits ffs. How are we supposed to trust him now?"

But TheCountessofFitzdotterel disagreed: "I think that was my favourite response to the biscuit question ever. His answer showed true integrity. No easy populist lies about 'Of course we all love Hobnobs' or whatever."

One confused poster asked: "Hang on. How can a person be anti-sugar when one of their hobbies is making JAM?!"

Mr Corbyn also answered questions on issues ranging from housing to misogyny and immigration, and sparked some debate on the website by saying that women in prostitution should not be "criminalised or stigmatised".

When asked how much - on a scale of one to 10 - he wanted Labour to win power, he replied "10". And asked whether a party should ditch its principles to win power, he replied: "It's not an either/or, it's the principles of a party of justice and equality that have to be centre stage in order to develop policies that gain popular support to put it into office."

He denied living in an "echo chamber" where he only heard the voices of his supporters, saying he had spoken to many Labour MPs over the course of the leadership campaign, and adding: "I sincerely hope we can come together after this election is over."

On the issue of whether Labour MPs who oppose him will face the threat of deselection, he said: "New boundaries are likely to come in and therefore every constituency will have to have a selection for a new candidate.

"Sitting MPs with a substantial geographical claim will be automatically shortlisted, and a trigger ballot will be held to decide whether local members want to widen the choice or not. If they do, a full selection process will take place."

He called for "a high investment economy, and to promote a trade system which protects the environment and human rights and promotes job creation, particularly for young people".

Asked if he had a favourite book he never tired of re-reading, Mr Corbyn plumped for James Joyce's daunting modernist masterpiece Ulysses, but said the most recent book he had re-read was Things Fall Apart, by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, which depicts the impact of colonialism on an African village.

"I've just re-read Things Fall Apart, but I think the prize has to go to Ulysses, on the grounds that it's very hard to understand the first time, and doesn't get much easier on the third or fourth reading of it," he said.

"I first read it as my companion on a complicated series of trains travelling from London to Marrakech."