Dieting Debbie Carter battles temptation every day – she makes and sells her own chocolates, and they’re going down big with “weaker” individuals in Parliament.

Through it all she’s says she has managed to slim down from 13st 8lb to currently 10st 4lbs in just two years.

Mum of three Mrs Carter makes her niche-market chocolates in a farm unit she rents, just a short walk from her Linton home, four miles south of Maidstone.

She started her enterprise, Linton Chocolates, some 18 months ago making five to ten kilos a week. Now it’s up to 60 kilos and rising, generating an annual turnover of about £25,000.

The 37-year-old has all sorts of customers. Many knock on her door to place their orders, and she also personally delivers to farm shops, hotels and restaurants in the county, including little chocs to place on wedding tables.

One of her best sellers contains cobnuts, which she roasts and caramelises, before dipping them in dark or milk chocolate.

“I buy all my cob nuts, 200 kilos a year, from nearby Loddington Fruit Farm, and each time I need more,” said Mrs Carter.

They supply my chocs to the Farmers Markets and outlets in London.

“All my ingredients are Kent produce, including dairy cream and in the summer months - fresh strawberries.”

Her chocolates come in boxes, bars and as truffles, the latter which has a French connection, an old recipe handed down by a French lady and family friend who used to visit years back.

That Mrs Carter’s chocolates are special is something MPs on all sides of the Commons can actually agree on. She recently exhibited them at a Kent Produce event there.

“They literally flew out of the window – MPs ate them all up. I took a whole big box of business cards and it soon became empty. They were all keen to hear how they were made.”

Maidstone MP Helen Grant confessed the Garden of England produce at Westminster had “everything for the waistline-wary to worry about”.

She singled out Linton Chocolates, saying: “I can personally recommend her gooey, salted caramels, which are dangerously available on my doorstep at the Marden Farm Shop, another great place for local produce.”

Mrs Carter confesses she sometimes succumbs to guilty pleasures.

“Now and again I pop one in my mouth. Sheer heaven!”