TORY MP Craig MacKinlay has told unemployed men in Glasgow to “get on their bikes” to go and pick fruit in England with “gorgeous EU women”.

In a bizarre, Norman-Tebbit-like outburst at a Tory conference fringe event, MacKinlay, a former deputy leader of Ukip, seemed to suggest a shortage of migrant workers in England after Brexit could be filled by Scots.

He said: “I was struggling to think, why wouldn’t a youngster from Glasgow without a job come down to the south to work for a farm for the summer with loads of gorgeous EU women working there? What’s not to like? Get on your bike and find a job.”

The South Thanet MP said that after Brexit British people should have the same attitude to finding work across the UK as low-skilled workers do from elsewhere in Europe.

“We need to mobilise our core of unemployed to say there is a job there for me, let’s go and get it just as the very well motivated Bucharest youngster gets a coach across Europe to find a job,” he said.

SNP MSP Jenny Gilruth said: “This is a sexist and patronising statement from Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, who clearly does not understand the needs of our economy or the issues facing job seekers and agricultural businesses alike because of Brexit.”

MacKinlay’s South Thanet seat was part of the nationwide election fraud investigation. He was charged shortly before this summer’s vote, with a trial set to take place in May 2018.

Scotland’s unemployment rate is currently 3.8 per cent, while the UK unemployment rate is 4.5 per cent.