When bookmakers Ladbrokes offered a tongue-in-cheek bet about Bradford-born Tory big-hitter Eric Pickles they couldn’t have guessed he’d help punters along himself.

Now the bookies has paid out thousands of pounds to punters who took up their bet that the former Bradford Council leader Pickles would indulge in a curry during last week’s Conservative Party conference.

Ladbrokes offered slim odds of 5/6 that Mr Pickles, now Local Government Secretary, would be unable to resist the lure of the hot stuff while in Birmingham – which is almost as famous for its curries as Bradford.

They said they’d pay out to anyone who took a picture and had proof of Pickles’ slap-up feed, but Eric trumped the bookies by posing for a picture himself – alongside Bingley councillor Baroness Margaret Eaton – in a Birmingham curry house. He posted on his Twitter page an exhortation for Ladbrokes to “pay out!”

Ladbrokes has now paid out thousands to the punters who took a chance that a Bradford lad would be unable to resist a curry.

David Williams of Ladbrokes said: “Eric has left us needing smelling salts. His curry antics have cost us a small fortune and we’re feeling a bit fragile. Punters will be ordering extra popadums and raising a toast to the big man.”

Mr Pickles told the Telegraph & Argus: “Ladbrokes should have known better that a Bradford boy would grab a curry at any chance.”