Men, not women, are suffering from sexism, says Ann Widdecombe, who insists there is a “lax attitude” to ensuring the parental rights of fathers.

The former Conservative MP, 68, said if she was going to “rail against sexism” it would be on the man’s side because society has them “whipped” and they are "failing to resist".

Speaking at Henley Literary Festival, she said: “Now, everywhere you have positive discrimination. That's a way of saying negative discrimination against men… If I’m going to complain about sexism it should be from [men’s] sex not from mine.”