Britain's youth should take up the fruit picking and farm labouring jobs currently done by EU migrants, the Environment Secretary has suggested.
Andrea Leadsom, who withdrew from the Tory leadership race in July, said she hoped more youngsters could be encouraged to "engage with countryside matters" and take up jobs and careers in food production.
At a Conservative Party conference fringe event in Birmingham she was challenged about the impact immigration curbs would have on the food and farming sector, which depends heavily on migrant labour.
She said: "There are two sorts of employee who have migrated to this country. One are permanent employees who have come here from the EU or from elsewhere in the world.
"As has been made very clear, it is not Theresa May's intention to deport anyone unless our European colleagues announce their intention to do likewise.
"So, she is absolutely intending that those people who come here and do a great job in our food and farming sector continue to do that.
"The other side of it is the seasonal workers. Of course, before we joined the EU we had a very good programme of seasonal workers' licences and it is not beyond the wit of man to have such a thing in future."
Asked if it was possible for Britons could do the jobs instead, she said: "Of course it is, that is a whole different issue."
She added: "We could get British people doing those jobs and that tempts me to stray into the whole issue of why wages aren't higher and so on.
"My absolute hope is that with more apprenticeships, with more young people being encouraged to engage with countryside matters, that actually the concept of a career in food production is going to be much more appealing going forward."
