Leading Cornish MP George Eustice, the former environment secretary, has said shortages of some fruit and vegetables will last for up to four weeks.

Mr Eustice, MP for Camborne and Redruth, was cabinet minister responsible for agriculture until September last year when he left the post amid Conservative leadership turmoil. He has since announced he will quit Parliament at the next election.

Interviewed on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show yesterday, Mr Eustice said there was "nothing much" the government could do to prevent empty shelves in supermarkets.

The government and industry have blamed bad weather in Spain and North Africa for the squeeze, while Brexit has also been cited as a factor because of labour and supply chain issues - which the Government denies.

Some UK supermarkets have been rationing fruit and vegetable sales amid shortages of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, broccoli and cauliflowers.

Producers have warned shortages could last until May, with growers in Britain delaying planting crops because of spiralling energy costs.

But Mr Eustice said he expected the problems to last around "three to four weeks".

He blamed a "cocktail of weather events", and said food prices were always closely linked to energy prices, which spiked due to the war in Ukraine.

He said there was "nothing much" the Government could do in the short term to avoid the problems affecting supply chains, but said long-term action was needed.

He said Britain should be doing more to produce fruit and vegetables here.