False claims about meat taxes, references to a debunked conspiracy theory and myths about bendy bananas -- are members of Britain's ruling Conservatives following Donald Trump's electoral playbook?
Several Tory MPs were accused of making untrue or exaggerated statements at their annual conference this week, likely the last such gathering before a general election expected next year.
With the Tories lagging behind Labour in opinion polls, some observers saw the comments as a deliberate -- and desperate -- ploy that ex-US Republican president Trump's former election strategist would be proud of.
"There's a degree to which this is following the Steve Bannon playbook of flooding the zone," said political scientist Tim Bale of Queen Mary University of London, describing the comments as "pretty Trumpian".
"So that you actually create a question in people's minds as to what is and isn't real. And in the end, people just decide to go on their gut, rather than actually on any kind of objective truth or facts," he told AFP.
Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho suggested in her speech that Labour wanted to tax meat when the centre-left opposition has no such policy. Coutinho later defended it as a "light moment" in her address.
Therese Coffey, the environment minister, mentioned meat as well, claiming that "some green zealots" want people to only eat fake meat. She did not say who those people were.
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