In a bid to save our native red squirrel, celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver are being urged to feature grey squirrel on their menus.
Tory former National Heritage Minister Lord Inglewood, patron of North West Red Alert, warned that the red squirrel will soon become extinct if the non-native grey population is allowed to increase.
The reds, made famous in Beatrix Potter's Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, are being decimated by squirrel pox virus carried by greys and will soon be "toast" unless the Government acts, he warned as he opened a Lords debate.
He suggested one way of dealing with the problem would be to foster a market for grey squirrel meat.
He said: "What about celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver promoting it for school dinners? Indeed the House authorities could put it on the menu here. I must confess that I have never actually eaten a grey squirrel ... but I am prepared to give it a go."
"What I would like to do is to invite each and everyone of the frontbench Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Department team to the hotel in the Lake District where I am a director ... to dine on grey squirrels to launch an eat a grey and save a red campaign."
He added: "I'll feel very let down and feel very sceptical about the Government's intentions as to biodiversity if, on the advice of some politically correct adviser, the invitation is refused.
"Don't let's forget that a number of things we eat as a matter of course are entirely loveable creatures and they appeal to the wider world. What's the difference?
"More importantly it's not only me that's going to feel let down. It's going to be the red squirrels too. Unless something radical and imaginative is done Squirrel Nutkin and his friends are going to be toast."
Red squirrels are now mainly confined to small conifer woodlands of northern England and Scotland.
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yum yum, i wonder if you can get that at Ackbars
