Submarine escape hatches should be made bigger to accommodate obese people in the military, a peer has suggested.

The problem of overweight service personnel was highlighted at Westminster by Lord McColl of Dulwich, a consultant surgeon.

The Tory peer and former professor of surgery at Guy's and St Thomas' Medical School pointed out Britain's latest fighter planes had had to be fitted with modified ejector seats because pilots were getting heavier.

Speaking in the House of Lords, Lord McColl said: "By far and away the most serious eating disorder is the obesity epidemic which is now impinging upon the armed forces.

"Ejector seats in fighter planes are having to be modified because of obesity.

"We may have to enlarge the escape hatches of submarines to allow (people to get out)."

The comments come after the Telegraph revealed Britain’s new fighter jets have been fitted with super-boosted ejector seats because RAF pilots have grown heavier in recent years.

Each F-35 plane has been equipped with a seat capable of ejecting a person weighing nearly eighteen stone, documents show. Defence sources said the seats had been designed to cope with the "increasingly diverse physical profile" of modern aircrew.