Ministers are being urged to launch a lottery game to raise funds for a new £120million Royal Yacht Britannia to "showcase post-Brexit Britain and bring trade to our shores".

Fifty Tory MPs have written to three of Theresa May's most senior Cabinet ministers urging them to help "right the wrong" of the Labour government's decision in 1997 to decommission Britannia.

Using funds from a new national lottery game to pay for a new Britannia would allow ordinary Britons "the pride of having a stake" in helping to fund the new yacht which would "showcase the best of British business and project our humanitarian role across the globe", the MPs said.

The MPs' concept to raise funds was welcomed by Anthony Morrow, the last captain of HMY Britannia, who told The Daily Telegraph: "A new initiative for a Royal Yacht to replace Britannia is to be warmly welcomed and it would be wonderful to see this come about."

The Daily Telegraph has been campaigning for a new Britannia to help win deals for Britain after the UK leaves the European Union in just over a year's time.

The letter - sent to Boris Johnson, the Foreign secretary, Gavin Williamson, the Defence secretary, Liam Fox, the International Trade secretary, and Tracey Crouch, a Culture minister - said: "As we leave the European Union, there has never been a better time to consider how Britain projects herself on the world stage.

"We believe that now is the time to commission a new Royal Yacht Britannia as a new symbol of global Britain, designed and built domestically to showcase the best of UK shipbuilding and industry, and as a platform for promoting trade."i

The MPs - who posed together in Westminster to launch their campaign - made clear the yacht must be funded from private subscription. Lord West of Spithead, a former Labour defence minister, has also signed the letter.