A Conservative peer – also a former brewery boss – has been labelled “ridiculous” for blaming Britain’s Muslim community for the collapse in pub numbers.

During a House of Lords debate, Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, who was a director of Marston’s brewery in Burton Upon Trent for 12 years, said that “socio-economic factors”, including a growing number of teetotal Muslims, were more responsible for dwindling pub number than “rapacious”  pub chains.