A Government minister has taken up the Prince of Wales’ battle against modern architecture by saying “most of what’s been built in my lifetime could be demolished without aesthetic cost”.

John Hayes, a transport minister, said vandals daub graffiti on modern buildings rather than older constructions, because people do not like them.

Mr Hayes, who has held ministerial posts in the Home Office, education and energy departments pledged that he will force new roads and railways to be designed in a “harmonious way”.

The comments were deliberately meant to chime with repeated criticism of modern architecture by the Prince of Wales which he set out in his 1989 book A Vision of Britain.