Fat commuters should lose weight if they want more space on the train, an MP has said.

Anne Milton, a former public health minister, tweeted yesterday that a “very large bottomed man” was making her feel “squashed” as he sat next to her on the train to London.

She told the London Evening Standard: “If you are going to sit on one of those seats for three people, you need to take up one third of the seat. If your bottom is bigger than a third then you need to reduce its size.”

The Conservative MP for Guildford tweeted:

Ms Milton, who was public health minister from 2010 to 2012, trained as a trained as a nurse and is married to a doctor.

During her time as a minister, she suggested that doctors should tell people they were fat rather than “obese” in order to spur them into losing weight.