Jeremy Corbyn professed his love for kebab shops tonight, despite being a vegetarian.

The Labour leader gave a short speech at the British Kebab Awards, which has become a popular event on the Westminster calendar.

Speaking from the stage he said: "It’s strange really, as one who chooses not to eat meat and chooses not to drink, I love kebab shops for what they do.

"And I love having a falafel wrap in a kebab shop."

He went on to recall that he had been given a ribbing on a previous visit to the awards, when he had urged the crowd to eat more salad, and said how much he enjoyed falafel.

(Image: Mikey Smith / Daily Mirror)

He said: "Two years ago I was ridiculed for talking about falafels at the Kebab Awards. Hands up those who like a falafel?"

As the crowd cheered, he said: "Big swing towards falafels in the last two years."

He said more or less anybody can cook a nice meal.

“What they can’t do,” he said, “is cook a nice meal 12 hours a day, every day.

"And that is what kebab shop proprietors do, and the people who work in them.”

(Image: Mikey Smith / Daily Mirror)

He added: “I want to say thank you for bringing diversity to our foods and diversity to our diets.

"When I grew up in a small town in the Midlands, with pretty much no diversity - in fact, there were no restaurants, so there was no opportunity for diversity in our catering.

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“But our whole way of life and our whole way of eating has completely changed.

"Thank you to all those people who have come to this country and made their food our food as well.”