What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Six years ago Rochdale pensioner Gillian Duffy changed the course of the General Election campaign when she challenged Gordon Brown on the economy and immigration, and later he was caught on microphone calling her “a bigoted woman”.

Since then the 71-year-old’s views have been sought on virtually every political issue, and today she tells explains why she is backing Brexit .

I have already voted to leave the EU - back in the 1975 referendum. Even before that my husband and I didn’t want to join the Common Market.

My dad was alive then and he said he didn’t think it was going to do us any good.

He said ‘our country has everything – we have got fishing, we have got North Sea gas, we have got coal, we are self-sufficient, why do we want to go with them’?

My dad had done six years in a war - he was one of the first to be called up and one of the last to come home.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

So he had a different way of thinking about Europe . They say you forgive and forget, but after what they went through I don’t think a lot of these men did.

Here in Rochdale, many people come and talk to me about the referendum in the street - and everyone tells me they will be voting to leave.

I haven’t had a single person tell me that they want to stay in Europe.

Read more:Gordon Brown 'bigot' OAP insists Jeremy Corbyn would take Labour backwards

The politicians don’t know any better than anyone else what is going to happen and I am frightened for my grandchildren and their children.

But what I do believe is we are going to lose our British identity if we stay in Europe, and if we lose that we lose everything.

We have a lot of immigrants who come in and a lot of them are here legally. But there are thousands are illegal.

(Image: Chris Neill/Daily Mirror)

So we should be managing our own laws, managing our own borders and vetting people properly.

If we leave the EU, we will take our country back and start looking after the people who are here now.

I would hope the government would use the money people say they will save from leaving Europe to sort out the NHS and get things going again for this country.

We can’t depend on Europe to sort us out – they won’t. We need to reclaim Great Britain and look after ourselves.

We need to get the country running right and to do that we need to be independent, we don’t need other people making decisions for us.

I don’t think trade will be affected if we leave. The British high street is filled with foreign stores – Aldi & Lidl. If we leave will they stop trading with us?

We don’t need to be in Europe – it is just a nuisance. We need to stand alone and look after ourselves.

We need to keep our British identity for the future generations of this country.