MOTOR vehicle-style exhaust tests for householders’ petrol-driven lawnmowers are Brussels ‘nonsense’, claims East Lancashire Euro-MP Paul Nuttall.

The popular garden gadgets, along with similarly-powered chainsaws, are among equipment being lined up by the European Commission for tough emissions tests to tackle global warming.

UKIP deputy leader Mr Nuttall said: “This is another round of nonsense emanating from the European Union.”

The drive to cut emissions from combustion engines in ‘non-road mobile machinery’, also involves bigger items including excavators, bulldozers, and river barges.

Mr Nuttall said: “These Eurocrats are fanatics.

“They are so blind to their own failings that they do not even realise the contempt which their hyperactivity breeds in the voting public.

“Targeting petrol-driven lawnmowers is just another example of them mowing down common sense.

“It is likely to have unintended consequences such as some manufacturers abandoning the EU for more profitable markets and product owners being unable to get replacement parts.”