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Conservative stalwart and former Cabinet minister Ann Widdecombe has defected from the Tories to join Nigel Farage's Brexit Party, where she will stand in the European elections.

Miss Widdecombe, who retired from politics 10 years ago and has fostered a TV career including a stint on Strictly Come Dancing, was a member of the Conservative party for 55 years - serving in Government under John Major.

She will be standing for election to the European Parliament in the South West, on a ticket against Boris Johnson's Remainer sister Rachel and alongside fellow Brexit Party candidate Jacob Rees-Mogg's sister Annunziata.

Miss Widdecombe, 71, said on Good Morning Britain: "Nigel Farage has been more successful than any politician other than Margaret Thatcher in my lifetime in getting his agenda through, and he's done this from outside Westminster."

She added: "I’m on a mission. We need to send a seismic shock to both parties that the electorate have had enough. Just get it done. The cloth ears in Parliament are not hearing us. If we win an overwhelming majority this will send a shock wave and MPs will have to listen. This is not a protest vote, far from it. It is a means of trying to galvinise Westminster into getting this issue dealt with."

She hopes to see more people defect from both the Conservative and Labour parties. Miss Widdecombe, who has described Theresa May as the worst Prime Minister since Anthony Eden, said: "I do hope that more people will follow me, from both parties. When I was 21 I first voted for the Conservative party and I’m 71 now and have done nothing else in between. Leaving has been a total shock for me but I’m sure this is right."

(Image: Joseph Raynor/ Nottingham Post)

Also standing in the South West against Miss Widdecombe will be Labour peer and Remainer Lord Andrew Adonis and social media activist Carl Benjamin, also known as Sargon Of Akkad.