“Maybe it’s ridiculous and I’m just getting old but I don’t like the way people have dressed down completely in parliament. I remember my old agent saying to me: “You have to show people respect, if they’re going to respect you.”. And that means dressing properly. I’ve never worn trousers to any meetings in my constituency either.”

Having opposed the fox hunting ban and become the chair of the Countryside Alliance in the process, it is perhaps no surprise that the Northern Irish farmer’s daughter thinks Labour spends too much time obsessing over “identity politics”.

“These whole rows we’ve had over trans stuff,” she said. “You used to talk about the Clapham Omnibus but again that is not something that people are getting up every morning and thinking about Labour’s policies on that.”

The outspoken Eurosceptic MP - who was recently threatened with deselection in her Vauxhall constituency after she defied the Labour whip to vote the Government’s Brexit bill through, has faced a torrent of abuse - particularly on Twitter - for sharing a platform with Nigel Farage.

The Liberal Democrats targeted her seat during the 2017 general election campaign, sending out leaflets showing her photographed on a boat with the former UKIP leader.

“I have absolutely no objection to Nigel being involved (in the Leave campaign),” Hoey insisted, having been dogged by rumours throughout her career that she was prepared to defect to the Tories.

“I’ve seen him at rallies. I know that people come out to hear him. He’s a very, very good orator. I don’t always agree with every word he says but I would not want to be an acquaintance with someone I really felt was a racist.”

During last year’s election campaign, the Liberal Democrats persuaded Sir Bob Geldof and Rachel Johnson, sister of Boris, to campaign against her.

She leans in to whisper conspiratorially: “I probably shouldn’t say this but, I bumped into Boris somewhere and I said to him: ‘Your sister has been coming out canvassing for the Lib Dems’ and he said: ‘That will only bring you extra votes’.”