Boris Johnson showed he can be relied upon to come up with a imaginative turn of phrase when he toured a sausage factory as part of his campaign to win the Tory leadership.

At one point, Boris, who frequently inserts unusual comparisons in his weekly column in The Daily Telegraph, quipped: “It’s like being welcomed to India.” He made the comment after being garlanded with a string of sausages.

Clearly, on his many trips to India, when he was still happily married to his half-Sikh wife Marina Wheeler, he was welcomed in the traditional manner with garlands of marigolds.

Boris said he was “insanely proud” to have a new sausage named after him after he arrived at a leading production plant saying he had only had a KitKat for his lunch.

The Tory leadership frontrunner picked up specially made “Boris Bangers” at Heck Food in North Yorkshire, before enthusiastically accepting a string of sausage links around his neck.

Boris was told that the Boris Bangers were made on Thursday morning, based on what the chefs had been told was his favourite meal — mashed potato, mustard and red wine.

He agreed that was his top choice and he had been “ruthlessly consistent” on this point, unlike Tony Blair, the former Labour Prime Minister, who chopped and changed his culinary favourite. Brandishing the packets, he told staff: “I’m insanely proud. That’s fantastic.”

Boris said he recognised the brand and had wrongly thought it was German, such was its popularity.

He said: “British sausages are now the best in Europe.”

As he walked in, the former foreign secretary was careful to select a blue apron before accepting his sausage garland, saying it was “quite aromatic”.

He later accepted an invitation to use the sausage machine, trying his best to guide the meat into the skins, but his apron could not save him from a splattering of sausage meat on his smart blue suit.