GETTY Kerry McCarthy spends Christmas trying to avoid 'dead meat'

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Labour's Kerry McCarthy, who as shadow environment secretary is supposed to represent the food and farming industries, ranted about having to get "up close and personal with bits of dead animals" and complained she had to spend her Christmas meal making sure meat-eaters weren't using her serving utensils. In a post on her blog, McCarthy revealed she dreads the festive season as it is impossible to avoid coming into contact with meat - oh and she also hates mince pies, even vegan ones, and doesn't drink alcohol.

GETTY Kerry McCarthy dreads Christmas

She said her friends, who are "normally nice and interesting and funny" suddenly start sharing pictures via social media of "stuffing turkeys, smothering potatoes in beef fat and boiling ham in Coke" as soon as the festive season kicks in. She wrote the blog after spending a previous Christmas Day with her meat-eating friends and described "fussing over them to make sure they’re not using the same serving utensils for the vegetables and the meat", making sure no one poured meat gravy on her vegan feast and trying to clear away and wash up without touching any leftover bits of turkey or other "dead animals".

Perhaps next year I’ll just turn up in time to see them vegging out in front of Dr Who Kerry McCarthy, who shadow environment secretary

In the blog entitled A Vegan at Christmas, which she wrote in 2010, five years after becoming MP for Bristol East, she said: "To be honest I got rather sick of it. And for the first time I felt, I don’t really want to do this again. "Yes, Christmas should be about spending time with family, but perhaps next year I’ll just turn up in time to see them vegging out in front of Dr Who and EastEnders."

GETTY Kerry McCarthy criticised Americans for eating turkey at Thanksgiving

To make matters even worse, she hates another traditional festive food - mince pies - and does not drink. The 50-year-old wrote another blog about the trials and tribulations of being invited to a neighbour's house for mulled wine and mince pies. She wrote: "Do you say yes but explain you’re vegan and send them off in a last minute panic trying to find vegan mince pies? "And no point asking me where you’d get them as I don’t like them anyway." She admitted making an excuse not to go, adding that being vegan does "limit your ability to socialise".

GETTY Jeremy Corbyn's vegan shadow environment secretary hates Christmas

Some commenters on the blog reassured her it was fine to bring her own drinks and snacks. But one person joked: "They’re only inviting you over because you’re an MP. No one wants to spend Christmas with a sober vegan." The MP, who has been vegan for two decades and was a vegetarian for 10 years before that, cites her favourite Christmas feast as a "traditional Christmas curry".