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Boris Johnson went bananas today as he got into a row over EU rules about fruit.

The former London Mayor claimed the 28-nation bloc prevents bananas being sold in more than bunches of three.

Speaking on the EU referendum campaign trail in Stafford, he said: “It is absurd that we are told you cannot sell bananas of bunches of more than two or three bananas.

“You cannot sell bananas with abnormal curvature of the fingers.

“Why should they tell us?”

But Mr Johnson was left red-faced after it emerged EU rules state bananas should be sold either singularly or in bunches of four or more.

Pro-EU Labour MP Jess Phillips said Boris’s “made-up stories on bananas is positively slapstick”.

She added: “It tells me he isn’t buying bananas for his kids’ pack lunches very often.

“I manage to buy a bunch of more than three bananas every week.”

In a sign of the deepening blue-on-blue civil war, Conservative grandee Lord Michael Heseltine , nicknamed Tarzan in his Cabinet heyday, also tore into the claim, saying: “Today we’ve got some ridiculous story about two to three bananas in a bunch out of Brussels.

(Image: Getty)

“It’s a complete fabrication. I know - my wife and I eat bananas, I’ve bought bunches of bananas.

“Frankly. I think the strain of the campaign is beginning to tell on him.”

The former Deputy Prime Minister also launched a stunning attack on Mr Johnson’s remarks comparing the EU to Hitler at the weekend.

“The idea that a serious British politician can in any way invoke that memory, I find it - frankly, I had better contain my language,” the peer said.

“I find it deeply distressing. I don’t really understand what Boris is up to, frankly.

“I know him, I like him, he makes me laugh. And yet yesterday about Hitler, I find that deeply disturbing. I know what happened, I was there. I’m of that generation.”

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

He told the BBC he would be “very surprised” if the ex-Mayor became Tory leader, adding that the “strain” of the referendum campaign was “beginning to tell” on the backbencher.

Asked if Mr Johnson could get the top party job, the peer said: “I think every time he makes one of these extraordinary utterances, people in the Conservative Party will question whether he now has the judgement for that position.”

Lord Heseltine warned: “He’s behaving now irresponsibly, recklessly and I fear that his judgement is going.”