"THINNER buses" that can navigate country lanes are needed to improve public transport, North Herefordshire MP Bill Wiggin has said.

He also warned that "vegetarian nonsense" is doing "immense harm" to the environment.

The Tory MP said there need to be better options for buses, especially in rural parts of the UK.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Wiggin said: "I have been appalled by the way that bus companies treat each other and seek to compete against one another to put themselves or their competitors out of business.

"We need reliability in our buses and preferably slightly thinner buses so they fit down country lanes."

Mr Wiggin, who himself runs a small beef herd, also hit out at vegetarians, saying people who "really care about the planet" should eat grass-fed meat.

He said: "Now there is another gripe I've got, and that is this vegetarian nonsense. And I have absolutely had it up to here. If you really care about the planet, you should eat grass-fed meat.

"There is no way human beings can consume grass. It makes sense to turn the grass that grows across 60 per cent of our country into protein, and the way to do that is to allow a sheep or a cow to eat it, and then consume.

"All of those people nibbling away on soya beans grown on the burnt-out former forests of the Amazon are doing immense harm, not least lurking outside here and making people stick in a traffic jam, emitting carbon monoxide."