Ann Widdecombe has said that women have never had it so good, criticising feminists who want “special privileges” for women.

The former Conservative MP, 70, criticised what she described as “the age of the whine and the whinge” and attacked women who say they have it harder than men.

Writing for the Radio Times, she said: “Until the 1970s it was lawful for employers to advertise a job with two rates of pay, one for men and one for women. It was likewise lawful to refuse a job, finance, property rental and mortgages to women on no grounds other than their sex.

“The feminists of those years yelled that all we wanted was equality. Now that has turned into a pathetic whine for special privileges. No, thanks, sisters. I’ll do what I’ve always done and compete on merit.”

The former Celebrity Big Brother and Strictly Come Dancing contestant added it was hard to see what some women complain about when Britain is enjoying its second female Prime Minister and the Metropolitan Police is being run by a woman for the first time.

She said: “Here a woman, there a woman – but everywhere a bleat, bleat. The particular bleat now dominating the airwaves is that women, particularly older women, are discriminated against in the media.

“The reality in real life is that it’s a positive advantage to be a woman in the media.”

Widdecombe also took aim at the #MeToo movement, saying it showed some women want to be victimised.

She added: “Nay, so keen are women to embrace victimhood that members of the #MeToo movement wail about flirtatious conduct decades ago and even a cabinet minister whimpers about an off-colour joke of several years earlier. It’s enough to make one wonder if we should have stayed at home darning socks.”

The former MP for Maidstone and The Weald finished second place in Celebrity Big Brother in January 2018 behind Australian drag queen and pop act Courtney Act.