Mayor of London Boris Johnson used his speech at the Tory Party conference to poke fun at the recent Conservative defectors to UKIP, describing them as ‘vacuum cleaner abusers’.

While mocking the EU’s recent plans to ban more powerful vacuum cleaners at an event under the banner of “How we win in 2015”, Johnson took aim at the recent Tory defectors, saying:

“The EU commission wants to ban vacuum cleaners on the grounds that they are too powerful. If you do not handle your vacuum cleaner correctly, you may end up inhaling the hamster – the budgerigar through the bars of the cage.

“I have read that there are some people, probably the type who think of defecting to UKIP, who present themselves at A&E with barely credible injuries sustained in the course of what I can only describe as vacuum cleaner abuse.”

The spectre of UKIP and the debate over the UK’s role in or out of Europe has dominated the conference after the defection of Mark Reckless despite a push by party figures to focus on the economy.

Johnson admitted to having been approached by Nigel Farage to join UKIP, but said that he immediately turned the offer down.