When Nicola Thorp left drama school, she knew the way she presented herself would be key to getting work.

But it came as something of a shock when, while working as a temp between acting gigs, she found herself turned away from a receptionist role at City accounting PriceWaterhouseCoopers because - she claims - she wasn’t wearing high heels.

Thorp, who was sent to the PwC job by her agency Portico, says she was told it would be "ridiculous" for men to wear heels, but that it was "female grooming policy" for women to wear two to four inch heels.

The 27-year-old has now set up a petition to make it illegal.

“I expressed my confusion as to why,” Thorp told Telegraph Women about the incident, which took place in December 2015.