A Labour minister who claimed visions of Britain's countryside based on warm ale and black labradors were a 'far-Right fantasy' has posted images of her own rural idyll online – including of a black labrador. 

Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, the recently appointed nature minister, shared pictures of the family pet and past trips to a countryside pub despite telling a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference she is kept awake at night by her fear that the hard-Right will use this supposed fantasy at the next election.

She told party members: 'This is one of the things I do stay awake at night about, and think about, and fear.

'One of them is that if we don't make the case for nature, for rural communities, and what we believe rural communities look like, I do believe that the next election is going to be fought on a battle line of nature and rural affairs.

'And there'll be the far-Right deciding and determining what that looks like. It'll be a vision, a nostalgic vision of Britain, that never really existed.

'It'll be that warm ale, a black labrador by your feet in a pub that doesn't exist, and with symbolism of fox hunting all around them, it'll be a very far-Right nostalgic vision of Britain that we don't want to have, [and] never really existed.'

Yet this is the very lifestyle it seems the Suffolk Coastal MP, 40, used to enjoy, with a string of social media posts showing her relaxing at the pub and with a black labrador.

In one post, from 2015, which shows a dog sitting in front of a fireplace, she wrote: 'This is what Sunday breaktime looks like.'

The nature minister, who claimed Labour would fight for a 'progressive vision for the countryside' as it attempts to take on the far-Right, is also seen relaxing at The British Larder, a now closed gastropub in rural Suffolk.

Ms Riddell-Carpenter has also posted selfies with the black labrador and pictures of her spending time with her dad and the dog, who she describes as a 'food taster extraordinaire'.

She also posted a picture of her pulling a pint behind a rural pub's bar, writing: 'Very special to be back at the Red Lion in Martlesham – the pub I used to work at years ago. Thanks for letting me pull a pint again!'

Her constituency covers Southwold, home to the historic Adnams brewery. And in June she posted a picture pulling a pint alongside the brewery's director.

The Labour MP spent her early years in the Middle East, where her parents worked, before moving back to Martlesham Heath, a village in Suffolk, when she was seven.

Her father taught at a pupil referral unit in Ipswich while her mother was an NHS nurse in the town.

She attended several schools in Suffolk including the £27,000-a-year Woodbridge School and Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College in Leicestershire.

She studied History and Politics at SOAS University before completing a Master's in Islamic History at the same institution in 2009 and an MBA at Henley Business School in 2017.

Ms Riddell-Carpenter, an Army Reservist, worked at a number of PR agencies including as managing director of the Cratus Group PR firm, until she became an MP in 2024.

She is married to Matthew Riddell-Carpenter, who works in housing for Westminster City Council.

Around 9.5million people live in rural settlements, according to the 2021 Census, amounting to around 17 per cent of the population.

According to official registers, the labrador was the most registered dog breed in the UK last year, with nearly 30,000 fresh additions to the Royal Kennel Club's records, making it the most popular in the country and nearly four times more common than the French bulldog.

And while Labour is attempting a fresh crackdown on trail hunting, threatening up to 1,000 jobs in the countryside, it continues to bring £100million into the rural economy every year, according to the Countryside Alliance.

Ms Riddell-Carpenter's outburst in Liverpool sparked a furious rebuke from the Conservative Party chairman. 

Kevin Hollinrake, who represents the picturesque rural seat of Thirsk and Malton in North Yorkshire, told the Daily Mail: 'Labour think the countryside, the pub, the dog and the people who love them are far-Right.

'Labour is taxing the pub out of existence, as part of a sustained attack on the countryside, with almost two closing every day. That is a far more pressing cause of insomnia.

'Conservatives will always stand up for rural Britain, for the pub, the farm, the countryside, and most importantly, the people who keep them going.

'Andy Burnham should make his minister apologise to every one of them.'

Patrick Spencer, the Conservative MP for Ms Riddell-Carpenter's neighbouring Suffolk constituency, told the Daily Mail: 'As a dog owner, pub go’er and an occasional ale drinker… I’ll try not to take this slight personally. But I do think you can read into the mindset of the modern Labour Party when they are caught ad-libbing off the record amongst themselves at conference.

'The fact is that they have slammed rural communities with the family farm tax, higher business taxes, and the most recent SFI fiasco, while also considering changes to gun licensing rules and game shooting.

'For all the nice words and warm sentiment Labour MPs show my friends, neighbours and constituents in Suffolk… I don’t think anyone really believes they actually like and value rural Britain.'

The Labour Party and Ms Riddell-Carpenter have been contacted for comment.