Former Tory MP Teresa Gorman Dies Aged 83

Bold and brassy, colourful and controversial, she made the current Tory extrovert Nadine Dorries look like a shrinking violet.

Teresa Gorman, the Eurosceptic firebrand who was Tory MP for Billericay from 1987 to 2001 and a scourge of John Major and his shaky government of the 1990s, has died, aged 83.

When she applied to succeed the equally colourful and controversial Harvey Proctor - in the news again earlier this week - as MP for the Essex seat, she lied about her age to boost her prospects.

Once elected, she established herself as a right-wing populist - calling for rapists to be castrated - and Eurosceptic maverick, joining the Maastricht rebels against Major in 1991 and backing John Redwood's leadership challenge in 1995.

She was famous for her trademark bright yellow jackets.

I once asked her why she wore them and she said it was so the then Speaker, Betty Boothroyd, couldn't miss her when she stood up to catch her eye in the Commons chamber.

She also publicly and repeatedly championed hormone replacement therapy.

And she famously said of ITN's Tom Bradby at a Tory conference: "Have him scrubbed and sent up to my room."