TORY MP James Gray has revealed how he shows his contempt for waffling Labour ministers by saying "b******t" to them in sign language.

The North Wiltshire MP likes to use the expression when he hears mindboggling government gobbledegook, such as "cross-cutting initiative" and "stakeholders".

With arms crossed, he points two fingers of one hand upwards to depict the horns of a bull while his other hand is repeatedly clenched and unclenched to show the animal dropping pats to the floor.

But Mr Gray insists the ministers never understand what he is saying to them because, unlike him, they cannot 'speak' sign.

He said: "I suppose I have said b******t a few times when I have been in select committees and I have to listen to ministers talking about cross-cutting policies.

"I don't mind disagreeing with someone, but what I find very tiresome is New Labour ministers using language that no-one understands.

"They are trying to mislead people, which I think is b******t. And I suspect that most of my constituents would agree with me.

"I don't think I have said the word in the House of Commons chamber itself, although I have been tempted on a few occasions."

Mr Gray was taught sign language by his wife, who is chairwoman of governors at a London school for deaf pupils.

He has campaigned for sign to be recognised as an official language which the Government finally agreed to do in an announcement just weeks ago.

In a newspaper interview last month, Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith surprised fellow MPs by declaring "We are going to win the next election. I am not b*******ting."

And earlier this year Kim Howells, the minister for broadcasting, hit the headlines when he described the Turner Prize for modern art as "conceptual b******t".

North Swindon MP Michael Wills, a home office minister, said talking rubbish was an "occupational hazard" faced by all politicians. But he insisted: "I don't think it is a hazard confined solely to government ministers. I think it's true that opposition MPs can be equally guilty."