Tory leadership candidate suggests buying up lamb chops to feed children in event of no-deal Brexit

Housing minister Kit Malthouse says '80,000 tonnes of sheep meat' that is currently exported could be used in public sector and 'on British dining room tables'

Schoolchildren and hospital patients could be fed lamb chops in the event of a no-deal Brexit, a Conservative leadership candidate has said.

Kit Malthouse, the housing minister, said thousands of tons of British "sheep meat" that are currently exported could instead be bought by the government and sent to schools and hospitals if the EU refuses to delay Brexit further.

The Eurosceptic minister joined the Tory leadership race on Monday, promising to bring "fresh new ideas" to the debate.

He raised eyebrows in one of his first interviews as a candidate, telling LBC he wanted to ensure that lamb meat "ends up on British dining room tables" and in schools and hospitals.

Asked what preparations he would make for no deal, he said: "I represent rural North West Hampshire and I have quite a lot of sheep farmers in my constituency - beautiful rolling downs.

“Something like 80,000 tonnes of sheep meat is exported every year. Now if we go out with no deal, they think that will be significantly affected, so what do we say to them? Do we say, look, what can we do to make sure that the lamb ends up on to British dining room tables - it probably equates to something like four to five lamb chops per person per year. Could we use it in hospitals and in schools or could we compensate farmers for any damage that might be caused?

"If we're going to go over the line we need to have these contingencies in place and we need to be honest with ourselves about where the impact is going to come."

Mr Malthouse said it was important that the government was "transparent" about the preparations being made for no-deal and claimed that, under Ms May's leadership, ministers had been too "shy" in doing so.

He added: 'We need to have a proper conversation with those industries that are going to be significantly affected by no deal. Those people who say it's going to be a catastrophe are wrong, those people who say it's going to be a walk in the park are wrong too. It will be somewhere in between."

The housing minister suggested the UK may be forced into leaving without a deal if the EU refuses to extend Brexit beyond 31 October.

He said: "We need to be realistic about no deal and recognise that it's not just our decision. The EU may decide to choose no deal on our behalf and in fact just last week [French] President Macron said he would not allow us to go beyond 31 October come what may."

As the leadership race stepped up a gear, several candidates signed a pledge promising to keep the campaign "clean" and not launch personal attacks on their rivals.

Matt Hancock, Dominic Raab and Sajid Javid announced they had jointly signed the pledge, but were quickly accused of dirty tricks when it emerged that they had not asked other candidates to join them in doing so.

Mr Hancock also caused a stir by criticising Boris Johnson, widely seen as the frontrunner in the race, over his previous comments on business.

Mr Johnson reportedly exclaimed "f*** business" last year when asked about industry concerns about a no-deal Brexit, although his team insisted he had been referring to business representatives rather than actual companies.

Mr Hancock told the Financial Times: “To the people who say 'f*** business;, I say f*** ;f*** business;.”