A new law which prevents butchers from selling mint sauce and mustard in their shops without a licence has been condemned by North Wiltshire Conservative MP James Gray.

The law, which was brought in at the beginning of the month, rules that all butchers selling unwrapped raw meat and ready-to-eat food to the public will have to be licensed annually.

The move means that without the licence a butcher cannot even sell mint sauce or mustard even if it is in sealed jars.

Mr Gray said: "This is exactly the sort of thing that gets my goat bureaucracy interfering with small businesses for no good reason.

"Everywhere we turn round there are more regulations and I think this needs to be changed.

"This is more bureaucracy and we do not need it. It is stupid not to be allowed to go into a butcher's to buy a leg of lamb and be able to have mint sauce to go with it."

A spokesman for the Government's Food Standards Agency said the new licensing scheme, which tightens control on hygiene standards, was brought in following the 1996 outbreak of e-coli in Scotland which killed 17 people.

The cause of that outbreak was found to be cross-contamination between raw meat and ready to eat food as a result of poor hygiene and handling in a butcher's shop.

Swindon butcher Glyn Hunt of Rodbourne Road, who is licensed, said he would like to see the same law applied to all the food industry including burger vans and public houses.

"The one law should cover everyone selling food, hot or cold," he said.