A row has broken out in Angela Merkel’s government after the environment minister banned meat at official functions.

Barbara Hendricks claims eating meat is damaging to the environment and has ordered only vegetarian food to be served.

A rival minister has accused her of “nanny-statism” and trying to force vegetarianism on people “by the back door”.

With elections only months away and Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) lagging behind their junior coalition partner in the polls, it was only a matter of time before tempers started to fray.

But no one expected the first falling-out to be over vegetarian vol-au-vents.

Ms Hendricks is a member of the Social Democrats (SPD), who have surged ahead of Mrs Merkel’s CDU in the polls under their new leader, Martin Schulz, the former European parliament president.

Senior figures in Mrs Merkel’s party have pounced on the vegetarian catering policy as evidence the centre-left SPD will interfere in citizens’ private lives on ideological grounds.