OUTSPOKEN ex-South Derbyshire MP Edwina Currie is set to join the I'm A Celebrity jungle.
Here are some interesting facts about her:
1) Edwina has already appeared on Hell's Kitchen, Wife Swap, Strictly Come Dancing, Come Dine With Me and Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes. She was the first to receive the boot on Strictly. ![]()
2) She has 8,051 followers on Twitter and has sent more than 15,000 tweets.
3) Edwina was born in Liverpool in 1946 to an Orthodox Jewish family and has identified herself as Jewish, although she has stated: "I find religious mumbo jumbo hard to swallow in any faith."
4) She was educated at Oxford University and the London School of Economics.
5) A life-long Conservative, she stood for Parliament in 1983 and represented South Derbyshire for 14 years, becoming one of the nation's best known MPs.![]()
6) Edwina is also a successful writer, publishing both fiction and non-fiction. These include A Parliamentary Affair, The Ambassador and This Honourable House.
7) Her Diaries 1987-1992 were published in 2002, and caused a sensation, revealing that she had a four-year affair with the then future prime minister John Major.
8) She has presented her own radio programme, Late Night Currie and television show Currie Nights, and won the BBC's Celebrity Mastermind 2004.
9) Frequently outspoken during her time as an MP, she was described as "a virtually permanent fixture on the nation's TV screen saying something outrageous about just about anything" and "the most outspoken and sexually interested woman of her political generation."
10) In September 1986, she became a Junior Health Minister. Among her comments over the next two years were that "good Christian people" don't get AIDS, that old people who couldn't afford their heating bills should wrap up warm in winter, and that northerners die of "ignorance and chips".
11) Edwina was forced to resign in December 1988 after she issued a warning about salmonella in British eggs. The statement that "most of the egg production in this country, sadly, is now affected with salmonella" sparked outrage among farmers and egg producers, and caused egg sales in the country to rapidly decline by 60%. The loss of revenue meant four million hens were slaughtered. Although the statement was widely interpreted as referring to "most eggs produced", in fact it related to the egg production flock; there was indeed evidence that a mid-1980s regulation change had allowed salmonella to get a hold in flocks. However, Edwina failed to clarify this distinction.
12) In 1991, Edwina became the first Conservative MP to appear on the BBC topical panel show Have I Got News For You.
13) During the 1992 General Election campaign, she poured a glass of orange juice over Labour's Peter Snape shortly after an edition of the Midlands based television debate show Central Weekend had finished airing. Speaking about the incident later, Edwina said "I just looked at my orange juice, and looked at this man from which this stream of abuse was emanating, and thought 'I know how to shut you up'.
14) In February 1994, she tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill to lower the age of consent for homosexual sexual acts to 16. This amendment was defeated by 307 votes to 280, although a subsequent amendment resulted in the reduction of the homosexual age of consent from 21 to 18; final equalisation was achieved in 2000. That same month, she voted against the death penalty for murder, having previously voted in favour of it in 1983.
15) On 1 July 1972, Edwina married accountant Ray Currie in Barnstaple, Devon; they had two children and divorced in 1997. During this marriage Edwina Currie had the four-year affair with John Major, later Prime Minister, which she revealed in 2002. On 24 May 2001, in Southwark, she married retired detective John Jones whom she had met when he was a guest on her radio programme in 1999.
16) Edwina lives in Whaley Bridge, High Peak.
2) She has 8,051 followers on Twitter and has sent more than 15,000 tweets.
3) Edwina was born in Liverpool in 1946 to an Orthodox Jewish family and has identified herself as Jewish, although she has stated: "I find religious mumbo jumbo hard to swallow in any faith."
4) She was educated at Oxford University and the London School of Economics.
5) A life-long Conservative, she stood for Parliament in 1983 and represented South Derbyshire for 14 years, becoming one of the nation's best known MPs.
6) Edwina is also a successful writer, publishing both fiction and non-fiction. These include A Parliamentary Affair, The Ambassador and This Honourable House.
7) Her Diaries 1987-1992 were published in 2002, and caused a sensation, revealing that she had a four-year affair with the then future prime minister John Major.
8) She has presented her own radio programme, Late Night Currie and television show Currie Nights, and won the BBC's Celebrity Mastermind 2004.
9) Frequently outspoken during her time as an MP, she was described as "a virtually permanent fixture on the nation's TV screen saying something outrageous about just about anything" and "the most outspoken and sexually interested woman of her political generation."
10) In September 1986, she became a Junior Health Minister. Among her comments over the next two years were that "good Christian people" don't get AIDS, that old people who couldn't afford their heating bills should wrap up warm in winter, and that northerners die of "ignorance and chips".
11) Edwina was forced to resign in December 1988 after she issued a warning about salmonella in British eggs. The statement that "most of the egg production in this country, sadly, is now affected with salmonella" sparked outrage among farmers and egg producers, and caused egg sales in the country to rapidly decline by 60%. The loss of revenue meant four million hens were slaughtered. Although the statement was widely interpreted as referring to "most eggs produced", in fact it related to the egg production flock; there was indeed evidence that a mid-1980s regulation change had allowed salmonella to get a hold in flocks. However, Edwina failed to clarify this distinction.
12) In 1991, Edwina became the first Conservative MP to appear on the BBC topical panel show Have I Got News For You.
13) During the 1992 General Election campaign, she poured a glass of orange juice over Labour's Peter Snape shortly after an edition of the Midlands based television debate show Central Weekend had finished airing. Speaking about the incident later, Edwina said "I just looked at my orange juice, and looked at this man from which this stream of abuse was emanating, and thought 'I know how to shut you up'.
14) In February 1994, she tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill to lower the age of consent for homosexual sexual acts to 16. This amendment was defeated by 307 votes to 280, although a subsequent amendment resulted in the reduction of the homosexual age of consent from 21 to 18; final equalisation was achieved in 2000. That same month, she voted against the death penalty for murder, having previously voted in favour of it in 1983.
15) On 1 July 1972, Edwina married accountant Ray Currie in Barnstaple, Devon; they had two children and divorced in 1997. During this marriage Edwina Currie had the four-year affair with John Major, later Prime Minister, which she revealed in 2002. On 24 May 2001, in Southwark, she married retired detective John Jones whom she had met when he was a guest on her radio programme in 1999.
16) Edwina lives in Whaley Bridge, High Peak. 