The outspoken Tory MP has claimed it is time to "garotte the Game Boy and paralyse the PlayStation"

Outspoken Tory MP Boris Johnson has sensationally slammed videogames, and blamed them for the reason why children are reading less and less in today's society.

According to Johnson, 89 per cent of UK homes with children also contain a videogames console. He also claimed that the number of computer games per household were high in Britain, and more so than in any other EU country.

Writing in the telegraph, Johnson claimed: "Millions of seven to 15 year olds are hooked, especially boys, and it is time someone had the guts to stand up, cross the room and just say no to Nintendo.

Johnson has also blamed videogames for the reason why an influx of students are applying for University without the correct, or adequate writing skills. "I refuse to believe that these hypnotic little machines are innocent ... These possessions are not so much an index of wealth as a cause of ignorance and underachievement and, yes, poverty," he continued.

"The nippers are bleeping and zapping in speechless rapture, their passive faces washed in explosions and gore. They sit for so long that their souls seem to have been sucked down the cathode ray tube.

"They become like blinking lizards, motionless, absorbed, only the twitching of their hands showing they are still conscious. These machines teach them nothing. They stimulate no ratiocination, discovery or feat of memory."

Only Boris would be capable of such a tirade!