Feisty politician Ann Widdecombe tore strips off a top celebrity hairdresser when he tried to give her blonde tresses a "sexy and tousled look".

The Tory MP, who ditched her jet black hair after the 2001 general election, told renowned coiffeur Charles Worthington: "If I want to look tousled, I can go through a hedge."

I think that is a deep insult to my hairdresser

Ann Widdecombe

The comic exchanges came as Granada's This Morning programme informed Miss Widdecombe that a survey suggested her haircut had been voted the tenth worst in Britain.

To soften the blow presenter Fern Britton sprung a surprise 20 minute makeover on her.

The now slimline politician was ambushed after she told viewers about her new found fitness regime.

'Remarkably slender'

Miss Widdecombe, dressed in a floral pink dress, said she had started playing tennis and was a keen mountain biker after taking part in ITV's Celebrity Fit Club.

This was despite a report from her former headmistress who said the MP for Maidstone and the Weald "did not shine" in the sports curriculum and did not seem to enjoy PE.

Ann in her darker days

But as the interview came to an end - with Miss Widdecombe dismissing claims that she was "looking remarkably slender" as "a load of old flannel" - Ms Britton dropped the bombshell that her haircut had been voted one of the worst.

Miss Widdecombe retorted: "I think that is a deep insult to my hairdresser, but on the whole, I don't mind. If I like my haircut, I like my haircut."

And to defend her stance she asked viewers to call in and make a judgement.

'Purple punk cuts'

It was then Charles Worthington was asked to give his expert opinion on the MP's mane.

"I will only go along with it if you don't give me purple punk cuts," Miss Widdecombe insisted.

Luckily for him the hairdresser had a more sober plan. He said he would put more volume into the hairstyle "and make it look a bit more spontaneous".

This prompted Miss Widdecombe to argue: "If God had wanted my hair to stick up, he would have made it stick up."

Unbothered, Mr Worthington tried again. "I want to ruffle it up a little bit to make it a bit more sexy and a bit more tousled," he said.

'Real transformation'

But Miss Widdecombe pleaded: "Could I please look conventional and businesslike.

"I don't want to look either sexy or tousled. If I want to look tousled, I can go through a hedge."

Those ladies would have been scared out of their wits if I'd worn the hair he designed

Ann Widdecombe

The MP went away to have her look jazzed up, but unfortunately for Mr Worthington, managed to get hold of a mirror.

As she was presented to viewers after the makeover, a bemused Mr Worthington said: "Five minutes ago we had a real transformation and she was looking absolutely sensational and everybody was saying 'thumbs up'.

"But you are in a bit of a time warp Ann. She put her hands up here and she was flattening it down. We had lovely texture going on. She looked like a very modern businesswoman."

But Miss Widdecombe explained her actions. "I'm about to go to a ladies' lunch in North Croydon and those ladies would have been scared out of their wits if I'd worn the hair he designed."

She said Mr Worthington's attempt was "not me".

"What Charles was actually trying to give me was bits sticking out all over the place which to me, that just looks untidy.

"When I see somebody with a hairstyle like that, I just want to take a comb to them."

The doughty performer finally relented: "What's done now is absolutely fine - a bit of curl here, a bit of wave there, fine. But the Bush effect, as I call it, definitely not."