title: Flesch–Kincaid readability tests

text: As readability formulas were developed for school books, they demonstrate weaknesses compared to directly testing usability with typical readers. They neglect between-reader differences and effects of content, layout and retrieval aids. For example, the pangram "Cwm fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz." has a reading ease score of 100 and grade level score of 0.52 despite its obscure words.


title: Senran Kagura

text: The first game in the series, , is a side scrolling action game with playable ninja characters that was released in Japan for the Nintendo 3DS on September 22, 2011. The sequel, , consists of the original game and an extra storyline. It was released in Japan for Nintendo 3DS on August 30, 2012 and was later released digitally on the Nintendo eShop on January 10, 2013.


title: Senran Kagura

text: "Senran Kagura: New Wave" is a card battling game available on Android and iOS devices in Japan. The game's popularity resulted in a crossover promotion with "DrawGirls", a Korean picture discovery mobile game in which the player draws a cursor across the screen to reveal pieces of a picture.


title: Senran Kagura

text: is the sequel to "Senran Kagura Burst". It changes to a on the back view 3D game and features an expanded playable character roster, as well as an online multiplayer mode. The game was released in Japan for the PlayStation Vita on February 28, 2013, in North America on October 14, 2014, and in Europe on October 15, 2014.


title: Senran Kagura

text: "Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit!" is a rhythm cooking game available for the PlayStation Vita, in which the goal is to win a cooking competition. The game was released on the PlayStation Store on November 11, 2014 for North America, and on November 12, 2014 for Europe.


title: Senran Kagura

text: "Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson" is a 2.5D side-scrolling action game made for the 3DS, and was developed by the same team which created "Senran Kagura Burst". "Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson" was released in Japan on August 7, 2014, for Nintendo 3DS. The game was released in North America, Europe, and Australia via digital and limited physical copies in August through September 2015.


title: Senran Kagura

text: New gameplay is included in the form of pair battles, which allows a second character, to which the player can give commands, to fight alongside the player's character.


title: Senran Kagura

text: The playable characters in the game are customizable. Outfits, accessory size and position, and hair color can be changed to the player's liking. Augmented reality functionality was also included in the game. The playable characters could be posed against a real-life background in a variety of poses.


title: Senran Kagura

text: The sequel improved on the original, by enhancing breast physics and clothing destruction, introducing the first playable male character, and allowing for pair battles. Daidouji and Rin, two characters that had originally appeared in "Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus" as downloadable content, were part of the regular playable character roster in the game.


title: Senran Kagura

text: "Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson" was part of a cross-promotion deal with Umaibo ("delicious stick" in Japanese), a Japanese brand of corn puff snacks, in which the game's playable characters appeared on the brand's product packaging.


title: Senran Kagura

text: The limited edition, named the “Nyuu Nyuu DX Pack”, included the following extras: a special collectors box; five figurines of the Homura Crimson Squad, characters in the game; a Drama CD; a soundtrack CD; and limited edition original packaging.


title: Senran Kagura

text: The European version of the game was launched on August 27, 2015. Limited editions include the 'Happy Boobs' edition with two audio CDs, poster and certificate, and the 'Shinobi Edition' which comes with an "oppai" mouse pad with 3D breasts, and decorative wall scroll.


title: Senran Kagura

text: "Senran Kagura: Estival Versus" was released on March 26, 2015 in Japan. The game was released in North America on March 15, 2016 and Europe on March 18, 2016.


title: Senran Kagura

text: "Estival Versus" has two special editions, one for the PlayStation 4, and one for the PlayStation Vita. The editions are called the Nyuu Nyuu DX Pack Premium, and contained: a copy of the game; a special collectors box; a product code for "Senran Kagura: Estival Versus—Eve Full of Swimsuits", a 30-minute original video animation (OVA) featuring 20 of the game's characters; a Drama CD; a soundtrack CD; and mini figurines. The only difference between the two editions are which set of figurines they contain, and what tracks are on each Drama CD. The Vita special edition contains figurines of characters from the Hebijo Clandestine Girls’ Academy, while the PlayStation 4 edition contains figurines from the Gessen Girls’ Private School.


title: Senran Kagura

text: The first-print run of the collectors editions also contained a bonus 2-CD set of the game's soundtrack, and a visual book.


title: Senran Kagura

text: The game sold 44,548 physical retail copies on the PlayStation Vita in addition to 30,247 physical copies on the PlayStation 4 within the first week of release in Japan.


title: Senran Kagura

text: The game features DLC guest characters, the first of whom was the "Dead or Alive"/"Ninja Gaiden" series' Ayane. Included in this wave of DLC was Ayane's kimono along with the trademark blue kunoichi costume of Kasumi in a mash-up collab with Marvelous. In return, "Dead or Alive 5 Last Round" featured a costume set where the females are dressed as "Senran Kagura" characters and were even breakable on PlayStation 4/Xbox One versions of the game. Ayane in this set is dressed as Yagyū. Besides Ayane, three characters from "Ikki Tousen", Hakufu Sonsaku, Uncho Kan'u and Housen Ryofu also appeared as the last three guest characters. Due to temporary licensing issues, the Ikki Tousen characters would temporarily not appear in Western versions until the PC port, which was released on March 17, 2017. Ayane character was delisted from online store in March 17, 2021.


title: Senran Kagura

text: "Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash" is a water gun third-person shooter for the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows. It features over 30 girls who play on teams. "Peach Beach Splash" was released in Japan on March 16, 2017. The game released in North America on September 26, 2017 and in Europe on September 22, 2017 for the PlayStation 4, and later worldwide on March 7, 2018 for the PC.


title: Senran Kagura

text: As part of full collaboration with Tecmo Koei's Team Ninja on releasing the DLC costumes in "" and "Dead or Alive Xtreme 3", and adds Ayane as a DLC character in "Estival Versus", the "Dead or Alive" characters' Marie Rose and Honoka are announced, along with Ayane who appeared as a DLC character in "Estival Versus" to be DLC characters in this game. As part of collaboration with Nitroplus since the console version of "", Super Sonico is added as one of the DLC characters. Three "Ikki Tousen" characters who appeared as DLC in "Estival Versus" return as DLC again, in addition of the fourth "Ikki Tousen" DLC character Shimei Ryoumou. It later introduces three new DLC guest characters, the titular protagonist of Idea Factory’s "Hyperdimension Neptunia", and Rinka and Ranka Kagurazaka from "Valkyrie Drive".


title: Senran Kagura

text: A spin-off title for the Nintendo Switch, an "ecchi" dating sim game called was released in Japan on November 23, 2017. The game takes advantage of the Joy-Con's "HD Rumble" feature, allowing players to receive feedback from jiggle physics. It was published by Xseed Games on the European and North American eShop under the title "Senran Kagura: Reflexions" on September 13, 2018.


title: Senran Kagura

text: "Shinobi Master Senran Kagura: New Link" is a mobile game for iOS and Android smartphones devices in Japan. New Link also guest-starring characters from other series, such as "Dead or Alive" (in addition of Kasumi and Tamaki), "Ikki Tousen" (in addition of Cho’un Shinryu), SNK series (Mai Shiranui, Athena Asamiya, Leona Heidern and Kula Diamond), "Queen's Blade" (Leina, Airi, Elina, Tomoe and Shizuka), "High School DxD" (Rias Gremory, Akeno Himejima, Koneko Toujou, Rossweisse and Raynare) and "" (Jūbei Yagyū and Kanetsugu Naoe). It was created by GigaMedia.


title: Senran Kagura

text: "Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal" is a remake of the first game in the series in the same gameplay style as "Shinovi Versus" and "Estival Versus".


title: Senran Kagura

text: A second spin-off game for the Nintendo Switch, an "ecchi" pinball game called was announced in 2017. The game was released in Japan on December 13, 2018, and scheduled for release in North America, Europe, and Australia on July 9, 2019. It features a mode similar to "Senran Kagura Reflexions" that takes advantage of the Joy-Con's "HD Rumble" feature.


title: Senran Kagura

text: Originally titled Senran Nin Nin Ninja Taisen Neptune: Shoujo-tachi no Kyouen, "Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars" is a crossover game with the Hyperdimension Neptunia series, released on September 16, 2021 in Japan and October 26, 2021 in North America for the PlayStation 4.


title: Senran Kagura

text: In 2014, "Official Nintendo Magazine" wrote a preview about "Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson" (misnaming it as "Senran Kagura Burst 2"), labeling the game as "filth" and describing it as sexual objectification with breasts and buttocks. This elicited a response from Hatsuu, the Production Coordinator at Xseed Games, to unofficially reply, criticizing the writer's views as superficial and ignorant to the game's characters, story and actual gameplay. She also mentioned that a writer for "Official Nintendo Magazine" unsuccessfully attempted to boycott the game without having any knowledge, and that the writer made inappropriate jokes such as describing large breasts as "smuggling fleshy watermelons".


title: Senran Kagura

text: There are various manga series based on the franchise. The main adaptation, written by Kenichirō Takaki and illustrated by Amami Takatsume, began serialization in Media Factory's "Monthly Comic Alive" magazine from August 27, 2011. Seven Seas Entertainment began releasing the series in North America in November 2013 as "Senran Kagura: Skirting Shadows". "Senran Kagura: Guren no Uroboros", illustrated by Manabu Aoi, began serialization in Ichijinsha's "Comic Rex" magazine from September 27, 2011. "Senran Kagura Spark!" was published in Enterbrain's "Famitsu Comic Clear" between August 19, 2011 and February 17, 2012, followed by "Senran Kagura: Senshi Bankō no Haruka" and "Senran Enji Kyonyū-gumi", both published between September 7, 2012 and February 1, 2013.


title: Senran Kagura

text: An anime television adaptation animated by Artland aired in Japan between January 6, 2013 and March 24, 2013. The series is directed by Takashi Watanabe with scripts by Takao Yoshioka and character designs by Takashi Torii. The opening theme, "Break Your World", was performed by Sayaka Sasaki; the ending themes include "Fighting Dreamer" (episode 1–3 and 8) by Hitomi Harada, Asami Imai, Yū Kobayashi, Kaori Mizuhashi and Yuka Iguchi, (episode 4-6 and 9) by Eri Kitamura, Ai Kayano, Ryōko Shiraishi, Saori Gotō and Megumi Toyoguchi, and (episode 7 and 10-12) by Hitomi Harada. The anime is licensed in North America by Funimation Entertainment, who streamed it as it aired and released it on home video in 2014.


title: Senran Kagura

text: A second season of the anime series was announced in August 2017. The season, titled "Senran Kagura Shinovi Master -Tokyo Yōma-hen-", is directed by Tetsuya Yanagisawa and animated by TNK, with scripts written by Yukinori Kitajima and character designs handled by Junji Goto. The season premiered from October 12 to December 28, 2018 on AT-X, Tokyo MX, and BS11. The opening theme, "Scarlet Master" is performed by Sayaka Sasaki, while the ending theme, "Junsei Erotic" is performed by Mia Regina. Crunchyroll streams the series with Funimation streaming the simuldub.


title: Gemma Collins

text: Gemma Clare Collins (born 31 January 1981) is an English media personality and businesswoman. In 2011, she began appearing on the ITVBe reality series "The Only Way Is Essex", appearing until 2019. Collins subsequently went on to appear in numerous television shows, including "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" (2014), "Celebrity Big Brother" (2016), "Celebs Go Dating" (2018), and "Dancing on Ice" (2019). In 2018, she began starring in her own reality franchise, "", and a year later, she began hosting a podcast on BBC Sounds.


title: Gemma Collins

text: Gemma Clare Collins was born on 31 January 1981 at Oldchurch Hospital in Romford, East London. She is the daughter of Joan ("née" Williams), who worked as a part-time hairdresser and Alan Collins, the director of Unisystems Freight, an import-export shipping company. She has an older brother named Russell, who is also a director of their father's company. Shortly after her birth, the family moved from a house in Collier Row and Collins was raised in Rise Park where she attended Rise Park Infant School. Collins described her childhood as being "filled with love" and said that although money was "tight", her father still managed to take them on family holidays and said she has "very happy memories" of her early years.


title: Gemma Collins

text: Collins then went on to attend Frances Bardsley Academy for Girls. She enjoyed performing arts from a young age and attended dance lessons and stage school. At the age of 14, she began attending the Sylvia Young Theatre School and successfully auditioned for a part in "The Sound of Music". Collins' mother was encouraging and said she knew that her daughter would one day become famous. Collins was bullied at school for being outgoing and confident, and so following the success of her father's business, her parents decided to move her to Raphael Independent School, a private school, for her final year of education. She left school at the age of 16 with a U in GCSE Maths. Reflecting on her time at school, Collins said "I remember sitting in the exam room for my maths GCSE and thinking, "I'm going to be famous, I don't need maths."


title: Gemma Collins

text: After leaving school, Collins got a Saturday job in the clothes shop Warehouse before becoming a waitress at a local pub called The Orange Tree. She signed up to a media studies course at South Essex College but stopped attending after a few weeks as she found it boring. Collins returned to her job at the clothes shop Benetton before spending a few weeks working in a care home, looking after people suffering from mental illnesses. Collins then worked at a recruitment agency in London before becoming a receptionist in a BMW showroom, where she retrained to become a sales executive.


title: Gemma Collins

text: Collins' first appearance on television was in the ITV documentary "Snobs", which aired on 13 January 2000. The series focused on people who believed they were a different class. Following her appearance on the show, Collins visited an agent who told her that she "had charisma but was too fat to be on TV"; suggesting she should lose two stone.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In 2011, Julie Childs, mother of Collins' friend Amy, suggested to producers of the ITV2 reality series "The Only Way Is Essex" that Collins, who was a used car sales woman at the time, would be an appropriate subject. They went to Collins' house and then filmed her and her friends for two weeks. After going back to work selling cars for a week, she was cast in the programme and began appearing in "The Only Way Is Essex" from its second series in 2011; her first ever scene was selling a car to Kirk Norcross. Her mother Joan joined in the fifth series in April 2012.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In April 2013, Collins released her debut autobiography "Basically...: My Life as a Real Essex Girl", which became a bestseller in its first week of release. In January 2014, Collins took part in the second series of the ITV diving competition "Splash!". During training, Collins suffered severe bruising and admitted she had to overcome a fear of water. She became the third celebrity to be eliminated after losing the splash-off to Michaela Strachan in the first heat. In November 2014, she took part in the fourteenth series of "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" on ITV. After she refused to parachute into the jungle along with her cast mates, she withdrew after spending 72 hours in the jungle, which she said was due to health issues.


title: Gemma Collins

text: On 5 January 2016, she entered the "Celebrity Big Brother" house to participate in the seventeenth series. On 2 February 2016, she became the seventh housemate to be evicted, having received the fewest votes to be saved, spending a total of 29 days in the house. In October 2016, Collins appeared on Sky News where she was interviewed by Kay Burley about the campaign to remove the word "Essex girl" from the "Oxford English Dictionary". Collins described the definition, which stereotypes Essex girls as "unintelligent, promiscuous, and materialistic", as derogatory and suggested that the meaning be changed. The expression was removed from the dictionary following the successful campaign in December 2020.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In January 2017, Collins took part in the second series of "Sugar Free Farm", alongside five other celebrities as they attempted to live on a sugar-free diet. During the show she attempted fishing and despite the strict detox plan, Collins admitted she actually gained weight during the process. In June 2017, Collins returned to "Big Brother", as a special guest for a shopping task, alongside fellow ex-contestants Marnie Simpson and Nicola McLean. In October 2017, Collins presented the BBC Radio 1 Teen Award for Best TV Show to "Love Island" and, after announcing the winner, fell through an opening in the stage. The clip later went viral on social media. In an interview with "Irish News", Collins said "the seriousness of it is, it could have been really fatal". After the video's widespread attention, further videos of Collins were used as memes, including scenes from her appearances on "The Only Way Is Essex" and "Celebrity Big Brother".


title: Gemma Collins

text: In January 2018, Collins appeared on "Celebrity 100% Hotter" in an attempt to change her style. Collins admitted she was "terrified" about having a makeover but said she was keen to try out some different trends. In February 2018, she took part in the fourth series of "Celebs Go Dating". During her time on the show, Collins walked out on one of her dates within the first few minutes after he branded her a "diva" due to her being late, whilst she was also reprimanded by the dating experts after she failed to turn up to her date with Laurence, who was planning to take her to Paris.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In June 2018, she released her second book, titled "The GC: How to Be a Diva", in which she provides advice and self help for women to gain confidence. In an interview on "Loose Women", she admitted to using a ghostwriter. She also guest starred in a promotional advert for Netflix's "Orange Is the New Black".


title: Gemma Collins

text: Collins went on to appear in "", a one-off reality television special aired on 29 August 2018. In September 2018, Collins took part in the thirteenth series of "Celebrity MasterChef". She was eliminated in the second round of the third heat after her sea bass served in greaseproof paper failed to impress the judges.


title: Gemma Collins

text: On 24 December 2018, Collins took part in a one-off celebrity special of "All Together Now". Collins first performed "Big Spender" by Shirley Bassey where she received a score of 88 after impressing the judges with her vocal ability, which secured her a place in the top 3. She then sang "This Is Me" by Keala Settle and The Greatest Showman ensemble and subsequently finished in third place with a score of 39.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In 2019, Collins took part in the eleventh series of "Dancing on Ice", alongside professional partner Matt Evers. While competing in the series, Collins had an on-screen argument with judge Jason Gardiner, who made comments about her weight and lack of commitment to the series. In week four, Collins suffered a fall during a live performance. She fell on her face, nearly breaking her jaw and neck, and injured her knee significantly. Despite the fall, the couple received their highest scores of the competition and subsequently progressed to the next week. In week six, they became the fifth couple to be eliminated, following a skate-off against Ryan Sidebottom and his professional partner Brandee Malto.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In April 2019, Collins began filming for her own reality series, "". The series premiered on 7 August 2019 on ITVBe. The pilot episode premiered to a total of 673,038 viewers, and was the most watched episode on ITVBe in that week. "Diva Forever" was subsequently renewed by ITV for a second series, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production was suspended. As a result, Collins filmed a new reality series, "", from her home in Brentwood. In August 2019, Collins began hosting a podcast on BBC Sounds, titled "The Gemma Collins Podcast".


title: Gemma Collins

text: In August 2020, Collins began hosting a second podcast on BBC Sounds entitled "The Gemma Collins Love Lounge". In October 2020, "" premiered on ITVBe.


title: Gemma Collins

text: On 11 December 2020, Collins released a charity single, a cover of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" alongside her "Celebrity Big Brother" co-star Darren Day, with proceeds from the single going towards Rethink Mental Illness. The music video was released at the end of "", which aired on 9 December 2020. In February 2021, Collins appeared on "Piers Morgan's Life Stories", where she discussed her early life, career, relationships, and miscarriages, as well as her struggles with her weight and online trolling. Collins also appeared as a special guest on the second series of "RuPaul's Drag Race UK" to judge the Snatch Game segment of the show.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In December 2021, Collins appeared on the Christmas Special episode of "The Weakest Link". She was voted off in the second round after incorrectly answering a question about the number of beds in a twin room. Collins also returned to "Celebrity MasterChef" to compete in the "Christmas Cook-Off" episode, along with other former contestants Joe Swash, Les Dennis, Mica Paris and Rev. Richard Coles. Collins first cooked a sticky figgy pudding in which she mistook cranberries for chillies, but was praised for her second dishes of smoked mackerel pâté and festive gnocchi. She did not win the episode, however judge Gregg Wallace described her mushroom, chestnut and brandy sauce as "magnificent".


title: Gemma Collins

text: In February 2022, Collins fronted a documentary on Channel 4 titled "". The documentary followed Collins as she opened up for the first time about her personal relationship with self-harm and saw her speak to experts as they investigated what was behind the rise in cases of self-harm in the United Kingdom. It received positive reviews and Collins was accredited for raising the subject of self-harm and for showing audiences a different side to her. It was subsequently nominated within the Authored Documentary category at the 27th National Television Awards. Collins said she was "blown away" by the nomination, reflecting that "it was the scariest thing to be so honest with [herself], however the response [she] got from the show was totally overwhelming.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In April 2022, Collins embarked on her first live theatre tour, titled "The GC's Big Night Out". Performing in venues across the UK, the seven-date tour was announced on 19 April 2021 and tickets went on sale on 23 April. The tour was originally scheduled to take place between 15–24 October 2021 but was postponed due to logistical issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The tour began in Manchester on 5 April 2022 and Collins was joined by Stephen Bailey who assumed the role of presenter. The show featured Collins singing, looking back at her life and career and being interviewed by Bailey before taking questions from the audience. She performed in Glasgow, Southampton, London, Birmingham and Cardiff before the tour concluded in Newcastle on 14 April.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In May 2022, Collins was set to take over the role of Matron "Mama" Morton in the UK tour of the musical "Chicago". Following the announcement of her casting in March, producer David Ian said "[They] were completely stunned by [Collins'] audition for the role" describing her as "an undeniable force both on and off stage" and that "audiences across the country [were] in for a treat." Collins received criticism from several actors and theatre fans on social media who described her as a "stunt casting". Responding to critics, Collins said she "auditioned for the role and trained really hard" adding that she "didn't just get it because of [her alter ego] the GC". She was scheduled to make her debut in the musical at the Sunderland Empire Theatre on 31 May and was due to perform in Cardiff, Blackpool, Sheffield, Norwich and Oxford on selected dates throughout June and July. However a week before, it was announced that Collins had been forced to withdraw from the production due to a flare up of her knee injury that she sustained whilst competing on "Dancing on Ice". She was replaced by singer and "Loose Women" panellist Brenda Edwards.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In June 2022, Collins appeared in an online segment for the BBC nature series "Springwatch". She visited Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk and was accompanied by Chris Packham and Hannah Stitfall, where she discussed her love of plants and wildlife and was advised on how to improve her garden before being given a tour around the site. Collins said she was "honoured" to appear on the show and that she had been overwhelmed by the "beauty of nature". In August 2022, Collins appeared on "The Big Breakfast", in a guest segment that featured her assuming the role of an agony aunt and answering viewers' questions. In September, Collins appeared as a guest on the show and was interviewed by Judi Love in the bedroom about her self-confidence, upcoming nuptials as well as dispelling rumours she was set to present the next series of "Love Island" following an online campaign.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In July 2012, Collins launched her debut plus-size clothing collection online, ranging from sizes 16 to 22. Collins drew on her own experiences of struggling to find flattering and fashionable clothing in larger sizes and said she was "so happy to be able to offer bigger girls a clothing range that they can show their curves off in." In December 2012, Collins attended the Clothes Show Live at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham where she had her own stall featuring pieces from her collection that consumers could purchase. She returned to the exhibition the following year and won the award for "Best Designer" at the British Plus Size Awards in 2013. She also teamed up with fashion brand Simply Be to launch her own collection which included a range of bright prints, dresses and jackets. Collins also opened the branches of the store at Highcross Leicester and MetroCentre in Gateshead, cutting the ribbon at the respective launch parties. A year later, she opened her own clothing boutique in Brentwood, Gemma Collins Clothing. Collins opened a second boutique, Gemma Collins Boutique in November 2014. In April 2015, Collins launched her fashion range with women's clothing retailer Evans.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In November 2017, Collins collaborated with fashion website Boohoo.com to release a clothing range aimed at plus-sized women. The following year, she went on to release a collection of swimwear with the retailer.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In September 2019, Collins released her debut perfume, Diva Pink. The unisex fragrance has a guaiac wood, saffron, rose and sandalwood scent, and is described as a "sensual fragrance with luxury oud and diva day undertones". Collins has also launched two lipsticks, "Candy" and "Diva" as well as her own range of false eyelashes.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In March 2020, Collins announced her collaboration with fashion company InTheStyle, to release a collection of T-shirts, sweaters, hoodies and pyjamas featuring her viral quotes and memes. Following the success of the range, Collins collaborated with the company again in September, debuting her first plus-size collection with the brand which featured dresses, blouses and a selection of loungewear. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Collins released her own range of hand sanitizers and face masks.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In March 2021, Collins teamed up with The London Aesthetics Company to release GemmaCollagen, her own anti-ageing collagen supplement and skincare regime. Collins, who is regularly complimented on her skin, worked alongside the company's director Amrit Bhandal to create an ultimate skincare collection which included a cleanser, a toner, a day cream and a facial mask, as well as an eye serum and an amino acid night repair serum. The company also created a marine collagen supplement that included 90 capsules and was said to positively benefit the skin, hair, joints and muscles. The capsules were included in "Grazia" magazine's Top 10 "Best Collagen Supplements.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In May 2022, fashion retailer New Look posted a short clip on social media of a blonde woman walking down a corridor, with the caption "Our New Look family just gained a new member! Can you guess who it is?". Two days later, it was revealed to be Collins, who signed a deal worth over £1 million to collaborate with the company on a range of clothing. The exclusive collection designed by Collins herself, included bikinis, tops, dresses and jumpsuits available in sizes 8 to 28 that were inspired by "glamorous locations around the world" and also featured a range of jewellery, shoes and accessories. The collection launched online on 16 May, with Collins hosting a launch party in London that evening. It became available in stores three days later and Collins visited the Liverpool One branch where she held auditions for the public to show off their "modelling moves" in hope of being part of the company's autumn/winter campaign. In June 2022, she collaborated with the hair care brand Aussie to promote their "Deeep Moisture" range. Collins, a consumer of the product herself said that the conditioner had "come to the rescue" after her previous desire to be the "blondest person on the earth" had left her with "dry, damaged locks".


title: Gemma Collins

text: In May 2019, Collins teamed up with Just Eat to appear in an online advert where she tried the new chicken fries from Burger King to promote the latest addition to their menu, that were available on the food delivery service.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In April 2020, Collins collaborated with the company Cocoa Plus to release her own range of chocolate bars. She has since released other confectionery including luxury truffles, an advent calendar, and an Easter egg. In July 2020, Collins became the face of low-cost airline Wizz Air. Upon being appointed brand ambassador, Collins said "Anyone who knows me knows I am all about holidays, so Wizz have come to the right person for some travel inspo! Whether it's siestas and fiestas in Marbs or sunbathing and dancing through the night on a Greek Island, I have got a tip or two up my sleeve. Now we can all fly like the GC!". In October, Collins collaborated with Zymurgorium, a distillery in Manchester, to launch her own premium gin liqueur as part of the company's "FlaGINgo" range. In November 2020, Collins partnered with the online casino PlayOJO to launch a faux fragrance, in order to raise awareness that problem gambling is the "addiction with no smell". She admitted that the campaign was close to her heart having previously been around addicts in her life.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In July 2021, Collins teamed up with Durex alongside Ollie Locke and Alix Fox to create the Roadmap to Sexual Satisfaction, a guide in which she provided her tips and advice for getting physical, saying that "Confidence [was] the key to positive, satisfying, intimacy" and that "sexiness comes from within". In May 2022, Collins announced she was working with the brand again to support the launch of their new range of sex toys. She promoted three different vibrators and expressed the importance of "self-love" adding that the use of sex toys was "empowering" and that she wanted to help break the taboo around talking about them.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In August 2021, Collins was announced as the new face of the laundry detergent brand Surf and released her own limited edition detergent and capsules as part of the company's "Diva Divine" range, exclusive to Asda supermarkets. In October 2021, Collins became a speaker at Big Business Events, a business development service in which she offered her tips for business growth and shared her own experiences during a 3-day live event. In November 2021, Collins announced her collaboration with Amazon Handmade, in which she worked with interior designers Paul Moneypenny and Siobhan Murphy to create a bespoke 33-piece collection featuring homeware, skincare and other gift items, titled the Gemma Collins & Friends Christmas Collection. In December 2021, Collins took part in a debate at the Oxford Union which was part of an advertising campaign for Sainsbury's. She argued that modern and alternative dishes should be served on Christmas Day as opposed to traditional Christmas food and stated that younger generations such as Gen Z would prefer unconventional dishes, endorsing the supermarket's festive food selection. Collins won the debate and said she "had a brilliant time debating at the Oxford Union, it was an absolute dream come true for me", adding that "We should embrace the newness, new taste, new traditions." On 8 and 9 December, Collins took part in "On Trend", a shopping experience broadcast live on TikTok. As part of the two-day event, Collins featured alongside influencers and content creators to promote products that viewers could purchase.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In May 2022, Collins announced her collaboration with snack food manufacturer Walkers as part of their "Crisp In or Crisp Out" campaign. Collins featured in an advert alongside Ed Balls, Nigella Lawson, Gordon Ramsay and Fred Sirieix with Collins and Lawson arguing to "keep crisps in" sandwiches. On 19 June, Collins visited the town of Sandwich in Kent where she debated against Sirieix, who was canvassing to "keep crisps out". The residents of Sandwich then cast their votes on whether crisps should be kept in or out, with the majority choosing the former, resulting in Collins winning the debate and being crowned "President of Sandwich".


title: Gemma Collins

text: In July 2022, Collins collaborated with the freemium online board and card game "Bingo Blitz". As part of the collaboration, she was set a week of challenges to promote the game which consisted of Collins explaining her morning routine, performing a jazzercise dance to Meghan Trainor's "All About That Game", visiting Leicester Square to distribute "Bingo Blitz" merchandise, answering trivia questions and delivering a motivational closing speech to her fans, who had the opportunity to win £1,000 towards a night out by entering a giveaway.


title: Gemma Collins

text: During her time on "The Only Way Is Essex", Collins earned a reputation for being a diva. Her alter-ego was first created during the show's third series when Sam Faiers referred to her as "The GC". Collins describes her alter-ego as an "intervention" and says she and The GC are "very different people". Speaking in 2020, she said "Although I'm Gemma Collins, I've got my brand the GC. Gemma Collins is a homely girl who loves watering hanging baskets.


title: Gemma Collins

text: The GC, which is my brand, is basically a character that's over the top that people either love her or hate her, but on the back of her I've managed to launch perfumes and lipsticks." Collins embraces the term "diva" and says the word "empowers her". Her influences include Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Dolly Parton.


title: Gemma Collins

text: Collins is a supporter of animal rights. She has appeared in numerous campaigns for the animal rights organisation PETA. In 2013, she posed naked for the "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign. In 2020, Collins was photographed in a bathtub to highlight the fact that marine animals are separated from their families and confined to concrete tanks. In 2021, she posed with a skinned fox as she backed the campaign to end the fur trade in the United Kingdom. Addressing the prime minister Boris Johnson, Collins said "Take it from an icon, Boris – no one needs fur in their wardrobe. Do the right thing – ban fur imports and sales. Let's wear our skin and let the animals keep theirs." Speaking on her podcast, Collins expressed her interest in becoming a humanitarian and said she wishes to promote conservation and animal welfare to the next generation.


title: Gemma Collins

text: Collins has been a subject of press and tabloid attention since she first began appearing on "The Only Way Is Essex" in 2011. Her battle with her weight is something that has been widely documented throughout her career, however she has been consistently praised for her confidence, and has promoted body positivity and encouraged women to love themselves no matter their size.


title: Gemma Collins

text: Collins has a large following on social media, having amassed over 2 million followers on Instagram and over 1 million on Twitter. Such is her popularity, she is often paid to promote products and businesses on her pages and can earn up to £75,000 in one day from social media posts. Collins has stated that she only endorses products that she believes in.


title: Gemma Collins

text: Collins is widely known for her diva meltdowns and recognisable catchphrases during her appearances on television and in the media, and as a result became the subject of numerous internet memes. She was branded the "meme queen" by the BBC whilst Peter Robinson of "The Guardian" described her as a "social media powerhouse who has literally made a meme out of mispronouncing the word meme".


title: Gemma Collins

text: Collins is a staple of "hun culture". Her popularity within the LGBT community has seen her make various appearances at nightclubs and events including G-A-Y and Glitterbomb. She is the most frequently impersonated celebrity on the Snatch Game on "RuPaul's Drag Race UK", having been portrayed by Cheryl Hole and Kitty Scott-Claus in the first and third series respectively.


title: Gemma Collins

text: Collins has gone viral on social media several times. On one such occasion in July 2017, she attended the ITV Summer Party wearing an outfit designed by Gerda Truubon. The orange ruched dress with gold chain detailing gained attention due to the distinctive large shoulder pads. Several memes and comparisons were made, with comedian Alan Carr later dressing up as Collins for Jonathan Ross' Halloween party. She also gained notoriety for her falls at the BBC Radio 1 Teen Awards and on "Dancing on Ice", the former of which was included in the "Fall of Shame" segment on "The Wendy Williams Show" in America. In September 2020, Collins was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by online pranksters Josh Pieters and Archie Manners. In a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Institute, they cited Collins falling through the stage as an "act of unification" for the nation, and claimed that the "GC effect" could bring peace to North Korea. Following the successful nomination, Collins said she was "surprised and overwhelmed", and although she "couldn't see why someone would want to nominate [her]", she added that she was "all about world peace […] love conquers all. Peace is everything".


title: Gemma Collins

text: Collins lives in Roxwell, Chelmsford in a barn conversion which she bought for £1.35 million in 2021. She has described the house as her "dream home" and has had multiple renovations including a swimming pool and a summer house. Collins enjoys gardening and has expressed her love of plants. Collins is passionate about animals and nature. She has several life-size animal sculptures inside her home and in her garden, including a horse with a disco ball, a giraffe lamp, as well as a wooden Asian mother elephant and its calf, the former of which she donated £22,000 to CoExistence, an environmental art campaign conceptualised by the Elephant Family.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In 2012, Collins dated fellow "The Only Way Is Essex" cast member Charlie King. During their relationship, Collins had suspicions that King was gay. He later came out in 2014. Following their split, she began a relationship with mechanic Rami Hawash, whom she had previously dated in 2011; and the pair became engaged on 25 December 2013, however the engagement was called off a few weeks later. In November 2014, Collins was assaulted by her then boyfriend Alexander Moss at her former home in Warley. Reflecting on the incident in 2017, Collins said her biggest regret was not pressing charges because she was "too scared to see it through." Collins briefly dated James Argent in 2012, before reuniting with ex-boyfriend Rami. The pair reconciled in December 2017 when Argent professed his love for Collins during "The Only Way Is Essexmas" and they were in an on-and-off relationship until July 2020. Argent struggled with cocaine addiction which resulted in the breakdown of their relationship. Collins said Argent's addiction made her feel "suicidal" and caused her to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In July 2021, Collins confirmed she had rekindled her relationship with ex-fiancé Rami Hawash several months previously after she was spotted wearing her engagement ring in April. They reconnected again after meeting at a Madonna concert. During an interview with "The Times" in December 2021, Collins announced that the pair were engaged for the second time. She also discussed her plans to have a baby with Hawash as well as a television show to document the pregnancy and baby's birth. Collins also acts as a stepmother to Hawash's son Tristan (born 2018).


title: Gemma Collins

text: Collins began self-harming as a teenager and did so until her early thirties. The first time she engaged in self-harm was at the age of 13 when she picked up a knife and cut her hand in front of her parents. In 2004, Collins had an abortion when she was around three months pregnant after doctors told her that her baby would most likely be born with complications. Following this, the relationship with her boyfriend began to break down and Collins recalls an incident where she slashed her hand open with a kitchen knife to deal with the pain of "grieving for [her] baby and [her] relationship". She also suffered from anxiety attacks and began binge-eating. Collins suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome and in January 2012, she suffered a miscarriage and gave birth to a four and a half month old foetus on her landing the day before she attended the 17th National Television Awards. In July 2020, Collins suffered a third miscarriage, which she initially suspected to be a heavy period, after which she wrote an open letter to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex detailing her struggles with infertility and thanking her for her "bravery and honesty" for opening up about her own miscarriage. Collins previously admitted her fear about never becoming a mother but has said she "won't give up hope" and hopes to conceive naturally one day.


title: Gemma Collins

text: In 2015, Collins underwent surgery to have a designer vagina which cost £2,000. In 2020, she announced that she was planning to have a breast reduction. In 2021, Collins had her botox and fillers removed, stating that she "didn't look like herself" and wanted to instead opt for a more natural look.


title: Gemma Collins

text: During her appearance on "Dancing on Ice" in 2019, Collins lost over two stone and since then has continued to lose weight after adapting a more balanced diet and exercise regime. She regularly posts workout videos and has shared her fitness journey on social media.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Ann Noreen Widdecombe (born 4 October 1947) is a British politician, author and television personality. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone and The Weald, and the former Maidstone constituency, from 1987 to 2010 and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England from 2019 to 2020. Originally a member of the Conservative Party, she was a member of the Brexit Party from 2019 until it was renamed Reform UK in 2021.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Born in Bath, Somerset, Widdecombe read Latin at the University of Birmingham and later studied philosophy, politics and economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She is a convert from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism and was a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship. She served as Minister of State for Employment from 1994 to 1995 and Minister of State for Prisons from 1995 to 1997. She later served in the Shadow Cabinet of William Hague as Shadow Secretary of State for Health from 1998 to 1999 and Shadow Home Secretary from 1999 to 2001. She was appointed to the Privy Council in 1997.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe stood down from the House of Commons at the 2010 general election. Since 2002, she has made numerous television and radio appearances, including as a television presenter. A prominent Eurosceptic, in 2016 she supported the Vote Leave campaign to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union (EU). Widdecombe returned to politics as the lead candidate for the Brexit Party in South West England at the 2019 European Parliament election, winning the seat in line with results nationally, serving until the country left the EU on 31 January 2020. In the general election of December 2019 – as with all other candidates for the Commons fielded by the Brexit Party – she did not win Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, but retained her deposit and came third.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Ideologically, Widdecombe identifies herself as a social conservative and stresses the importance of traditional values and conservatism. As a member of the House of Commons, she was known for opposing the legality of abortion, her opposition to LGBT legal rights such as an equal age of consent and the repeal of Section 28, her support for the retention of blasphemy laws and re-introduction of the death penalty, albeit applicable to a narrower class of murders than previously applied. She has a history of supporting rigorous laws on animal protection and opposition to fox hunting.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Born in Bath, Somerset, Widdecombe is the daughter of Rita Noreen ("née" Plummer; 1911–2007) and Ministry of Defence civil servant James Murray Widdecombe. Widdecombe's maternal grandfather, James Henry Plummer, was born to a Catholic family of English descent in Crosshaven, County Cork, Ireland in 1874.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: She attended the Royal Naval School in Singapore, and La Sainte Union Convent School in Bath. She then read Latin at the University of Birmingham and later attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, to read philosophy, politics and economics. In 1971, she was the secretary of the Oxford Union for one term, and became its treasurer for one term in 1972; she never became president. While studying at Oxford, she lived next door to Mary Archer, Edwina Currie, and Gyles Brandreth's wife Michèle Brown. She worked for Unilever (1973–75) and then as an administrator at the University of London (1975–87) before entering Parliament.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 1974, Widdecombe was personal assistant to Michael Ancram in the February and October general elections of that year. From 1976 to 1978, Widdecombe was a councillor on Runnymede District Council in Surrey.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: She contested the seat of Burnley in Lancashire in the 1979 general election and then, against David Owen, the Plymouth Devonport seat in the 1983 general election. In 1983, she (along with Lady Olga Maitland and Virginia Bottomley) was co-founder of Women and Families for Defence, a group founded in opposition to the anti-nuclear Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe was first elected to the House of Commons, for the Conservatives, in the 1987 general election as member for the constituency of Maidstone (which became Maidstone and The Weald in 1997).


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe joined John Major's government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security in 1990. In 1993, she was moved to the Department of Employment, and she was promoted to Minister of State the following year. In 1995, she joined the Home Office as Minister of State for Prisons and visited every prison in the UK.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: After the Conservative landslide defeat at the 1997 general election, she served as Shadow Health Secretary between 1998–1999 and later as Shadow Home Secretary from 1999 to 2001 under the leadership of William Hague.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: During the 2001 Conservative leadership election, she could not find sufficient support amongst Conservative MPs for her leadership candidacy. She first supported Michael Ancram, who was eliminated in the first round, and then Kenneth Clarke, who lost in the final round. She afterwards declined to serve in Iain Duncan Smith's Shadow Cabinet (although she indicated on the television programme "When Louis Met...", prior to the leadership contest, that she wished to retire to the backbenches anyway).


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In the 2005 leadership election, she initially supported Kenneth Clarke again. Once he was eliminated, she turned support towards Liam Fox. Following Fox's subsequent elimination, she took time to reflect before finally declaring for David Davis. She expressed reservations over the eventual winner David Cameron, feeling that he did not, like the other candidates, have a proven track record, and she was later a leading figure in parliamentary opposition to his A-List policy. At the October 2006 Conservative Conference, she was Chief Dragon in a political version of the television programme "Dragons' Den", in which A-list candidates were invited to put forward a policy proposal, which was then torn apart by her team of Rachel Elnaugh, Oliver Letwin and Michael Brown.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In an interview with "Metro" in September 2006 she stated that if Parliament were of a normal length, it was likely she would retire at the next general election. She confirmed her intention to stand down to "The Observer"'s Pendennis diary in September 2007, and again in October 2007 after Prime Minister Gordon Brown quashed speculation of an autumn 2007 general election.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In November 2006, she moved into the house of an Islington Labour Councillor to experience life on a council estate, her response to her experience being "Five years ago I made a speech in the House of Commons about the forgotten decents. I have spent the last week on estates in the Islington area finding out that they are still forgotten."


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe was one of the 98 MPs who voted to keep their expense details secret. When the expenses claims were leaked, however, Widdecombe was described by "The Daily Telegraph" as one of the "saints" amongst all MPs.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In May 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin as Speaker of the House of Commons, it was reported that Widdecombe was gathering support for election as interim Speaker until the next general election. On 11 June 2009, she confirmed her bid to be the Speaker. She made it through to the second ballot but came last and was eliminated.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe retired from politics at the 2010 general election. It was rumoured that she would be a Conservative candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in 2012, but she refused. She has since spoken about her opposition to the Coalition Government and her surprise at not being given a peerage by David Cameron.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2016, she supported Brexit during the 2016 EU referendum and, following the resignation of David Cameron, endorsed Andrea Leadsom in her candidacy for election for the leadership of the governing Conservative Party.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2019 she returned to politics as a candidate for the Brexit Party in the European parliament elections in South West England, which were held on 23 May, though she maintained that she would still vote for the Conservatives in the local elections that took place three weeks before. She was expelled by the Conservative Party immediately after her announcement. Widdecombe had considered joining the Brexit Party in March 2019, but joined later, in May.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe said that her decision to stand resulted from the Government's failure to deliver Britain's departure from the EU on schedule. "Both major parties need a seismic shock," she said, "to see the extent of public disgust." She subsequently won her seat.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe became a member of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe stood as a candidate for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport in the 2019 UK general election, coming a distant third but retaining her deposit with 5.5% of the vote. Nigel Farage said that she was told by the Conservative Party that she would be part of their Brexit negotiations if she stood down as a candidate.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: As an MP, Widdecombe expressed socially conservative views, including opposition to abortion; it was understood during her time in frontline politics that she would not become Health Secretary as long as this involved responsibility for abortions. Although a committed Christian, she has characterised the issue as one of life and death on which her view had been the same when she was agnostic and was a member of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children while studying at Oxford. During Parliament, Widdecombe was a member of the Pro-Life All Party Parliamentary Group, which met with SPUC over concerns the organisation's more strident approach to abortion policy could alienate Protestant and atheist supporters.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: She converted from the Church of England to the Roman Catholic Church following the decision of the Church of England on the ordination of women as priests.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In her speech at the 2000 Conservative conference, she called for a zero tolerance policy of prosecution, with the punishment of £100 fines for users of cannabis. This was well received by rank-and-file Conservative delegates.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Over the years, Widdecombe has expressed her support for a reintroduction of the death penalty, which was abolished in the UK in 1965. She notably spoke of her support for its reintroduction for the worst cases of murder in the aftermath of the murder of two 10-year-old girls from Soham, Cambridgeshire, in August 2002, in the Soham murders. She supported the argument that the death penalty would have deterrent value, as within five years of its abolition the national murder rate had more than doubled.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: She is a committed animal lover and one of the several Conservative MPs to have consistently voted for the ban on the hunting of foxes. Widdecombe was among more than 20 high-profile people who signed a letter to Members of Parliament in 2015 to oppose David Cameron's plan to amend the Hunting Act 2004.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2007, she wrote that she did not want to belittle the issue of climate change, but was sceptical of the claims that specific actions would prevent catastrophe. In 2008, she wrote that her doubts had been "crystalised" by Nigel Lawson's book "An Appeal to Reason"; in 2014, she described Lawson's difficulty in getting the book published to the book-burnings in Nazi Germany. Later in 2008, Widdecombe claimed that the "science of climate change is robustly disputed", then, in 2009, that "There is no climate change, hasn't anybody looked out of their window recently?" She was one of the five MPs who voted against the Climate Change Act 2008.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: The previous year, she voted to support a parliamentary motion supporting homeopathy, disagreeing with the Science and Technology Committee's Report on the subject.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe supported the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967 in England and Wales. After that, Widdecombe consistently opposed further reforms while in Parliament. Out of the 17 parliamentary votes between 1998 and 2008 considered by the Public Whip website to concern equal rights for homosexuals, Widdecombe took the opposing position in 15 cases, not being present at the other two votes. In 1999, Widdecombe stated that "I do not think that [homosexuality] can be promoted as an equally valid lifestyle to [heterosexual] marriage, but I would say the same about irregular heterosexual arrangements."


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: She has consistently argued against an equal age of consent for same-sex relationships, voting against a 1994 act (which would have reduced the age of consent for some male-male sexual activity from 21 to 18), secondly in 1998 (arguing against a further reduction from 18 to 16, which later occurred in 2000). On the latter act, she wrote in "The Mail on Sunday" that "one of the sundry horrors for which this Government is likely to be remembered will be that it gave its imprimatur to sodomy at 16", She later said in 2000: "I do not believe that issues of equality should override the imperatives of protecting the young." In 2003, Widdecombe opposed the repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988. In 2012, Widdecombe voiced support in the "Daily Express" for the practise of conversion therapy, which claims to change the orientation of homosexuals.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe has also expressed her opposition to same-sex marriage, introduced by David Cameron's government in 2014, arguing that "the state must have a preferred model" which is "a union that is generally open to procreation". She also opposes gender self-identification for transgender people. In 2020, she expressed her opposition to same-sex dancing on "Strictly Come Dancing", saying: "I don't think it is what viewers of "Strictly", especially families, are looking for. But that's up to the audience and the programme."


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 1996, Widdecombe, as prisons minister, defended the Government's policy to shackle pregnant prisoners with handcuffs and chains when in hospital receiving prenatal care. Widdecombe told the Commons that the restrictions were needed to prevent prisoners from escaping the hospital. "Some MPs may like to think that a pregnant woman would not or could not escape. Unfortunately this is not true. The fact is that hospitals are not secure places in which to keep prisoners, and since 1990, 20 women have escaped from hospitals". Jack Straw, Labour's Home Affairs spokesman at the time, said it was "degrading and unnecessary" for a woman to be shackled at any stage.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In May 1997, in the context of an inquiry into a series of prison escapes, Widdecombe remarked of former Home Secretary Michael Howard, under whom she had served, that there is "something of the night" about him.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: This much-quoted comment is thought to have contributed to failure of Howard's 1997 campaign for the Conservative Party leadership, a sentiment shared by both Howard himself and Widdecombe. It led to him being caricatured as a vampire, in part due to his Romanian ancestry. Howard became the official party leader in 2003, and Widdecombe then stated, "I explained fully what my objections were in 1997 and I do not retract anything I said then. But ... we have to look to the future and not the past."


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2001, when Michael Portillo was running for leader of the Conservative Party, Widdecombe described him and his allies as "backbiters" due to his alleged destabilising influence under Hague. She went on to say that, should he be appointed leader, she would never give him her allegiance. This was amidst a homophobic campaign led by socially conservative critics of Portillo.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2009, she partially defended Carol Thatcher's use of the racial slur golliwog on "Any Questions?", saying: "There is a generation to whom a golliwog is merely a toy, a generation which was much endeared by its golliwogs which grew up with them on jam jars ... and there is a generation, a new generation for whom that word is deeply offensive and one does have to make I think some allowance for the fact." In December 2019, leaked WhatsApp conversations to the "Plymouth Herald" between her and Brexit Party activists showed Widdecombe using the term amid rumours BP campaign funding was being diverted away from Plymouth ahead of the general election of that year. Referring to throwing of one's toys out of the pram, Widdecombe said: "Yes, I threw all my toys of the pram. Bears and gollywogs flying everywhere!!".


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2019 Widdecombe defended the comments she made in a 2012 article that supported "gay conversion" therapy. She told Sky News that science may yet "provide an answer" to the question of whether people can "switch sexuality". Following Widdecombe's apparent endorsement of conversion therapy, at least one venue, the Landmark theatre in Ilfracombe, Devon, cancelled a performance of her one-woman show.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe and two other Brexit Party figures were criticised for previous appearances on the David Icke-affiliated "Richie Allen Show", which has been accused of promoting Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family and Zionism. Widdecombe appeared three times between August 2017 and April 2019 and was described as an "old friend of the show" by the host during one appearance. Widdecombe told "Jewish Chronicle" that she agreed to appear to discuss Brexit, and that she "had never heard of the "Richie Allen Show" until I agreed to go on" and distanced herself from its antisemitic content by, among other things, pointing to her membership of the Conservative Friends of Israel, B'nai B'rith event speeches, and her novel "An Act of Treachery", which she said is set during the Holocaust.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the Brexit Party on 23 May 2019 in the European elections. On 3 July 2019 she used her maiden speech in Strasbourg to compare Brexit to slaves revolting against their owners and to a colonised country rising up against occupying forces, a stance which was criticised by members of both the European Parliament and the British House of Commons.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2002 she took part in the ITV programme "Celebrity Fit Club". Also in 2002 she took part in a Louis Theroux television documentary, depicting her life, both in and out of politics. In March 2004 she briefly became "The Guardian" newspaper's agony aunt, introduced with an Emma Brockes interview. In 2005 BBC Two showed six episodes of "The Widdecombe Project", an agony aunt television programme. In 2005, she appeared in a new series of "Celebrity Fit Club", but this time as a panel member dispensing wisdom and advice to the celebrities taking part. Also in 2005, she presented the show "Ann Widdecombe to the Rescue" in which she acted as an agony aunt, dispensing advice to disputing families, couples, and others across the UK. In 2005, she also appeared in a discussion programme on Five to discuss who had been England's greatest monarch since the Norman Conquest; her choice of monarch was Charles II.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: She was the guest host of news quiz "Have I Got News for You" twice, in 2006 and 2007. Her first appearance as guest host, in 2006, was widely regarded as a success. Following her second appearance, Widdecombe vowed she would never appear on the show again because of comments made by panellist Jimmy Carr. She wrote, "His idea of wit is a barrage of filth and the sort of humour most men grow out of in their teens... [T]here's no amount of money for which I would go through those two recording hours again. At one stage I nearly walked out." She did, however, stand by her appraisal of regular panellists Ian Hislop and Paul Merton, whom she has called "the fastest wits in showbusiness". Merton later revealed that he thought Widdecombe had been "the worst ever presenter" of the show, particularly on her second appearance where Merton claimed she "thought she was Victoria Wood".


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2007 she awarded the "University Challenge" trophy to the winners. In the same year, she appeared in "The Sound of Drums", the 12th episode of the third series of the science-fiction drama "Doctor Who", endorsing the Master's Prime Minister campaign. Since 2007 Widdecombe has fronted a television series called "Ann Widdecombe Versus", on ITV1, in which she speaks to various people about things related to her as an MP, with an emphasis on confronting those responsible for problems she wished to tackle. On 15 August 2007 she talked about prostitution, the next week about benefits and the week after that about truancy. A fourth episode was screened on 18 September 2008 in which she travelled around London and Birmingham talking to girl gangs.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2009, Widdecombe appeared with Archbishop John Onaiyekan in an "Intelligence Squared" debate in which they defended the motion that the Catholic Church was a force for good. Arguing against the motion were Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens, who won the debate overall.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In October 2010, she appeared on BBC One's "Strictly Come Dancing", partnered by Anton du Beke, winning the support of some viewers despite low marks from the judges. After nine weeks of routines strongly flavoured by comedy the couple had received enough support in the public vote to stay in the contest. Widdecombe was eliminated from the competition on Sunday 5 December after the public vote had been combined with the judges' score; she was with Scott Maslen of "EastEnders" in the bottom two. In 2011 Widdecombe played the Lord Mayoress in an episode of Sooty.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2012, Widdecombe hosted a new quiz show for the Sky Atlantic channel, called "Cleverdicks". The show ran for one series with 30 one-hour episodes. It featured four contestants, usually high quality members of the UK national quiz circuit and ended with a money round for the winner of each show. In April 2012 Widdecombe presented an hour-long documentary for BBC Radio 5 Live, "Drunk Again: Ann Widdecombe Investigates", looking at how the British attitude to alcohol consumption has changed over the last few years. It was revealed in October 2012, that the year's Children in Need's appeal night would feature a "Strictly Come Dancing" special with former show favourites Russell Grant and Widdecombe. On 4 November 2012, Widdecombe guest-hosted one episode of BBC's "Songs of Praise" programme about singleness.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In October 2014, she appeared in the BBC series "Celebrity Antiques Road Trip", partnered with expert Mark Stacey – beating Craig Revel Horwood and Catherine Southon.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe took part in a television series "24 Hours in the Past", along with Colin Jackson, Alistair McGowan, Miquita Oliver, Tyger Drew-Honey and Zoe Lucker. The four-part series was aired from 28 April–19 May 2015 on BBC One and involved the celebrities experiencing life as workers in a dustyard, coachhouse, pottery and finally as workhouse inmates in 1840s Britain. She took part in an episode of "" in 2016. In 2017, Widdecombe took part in ITV's "Sugar Free Farm".


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In January 2018, Widdecombe was the first to enter the "Celebrity Big Brother" house to participate as a housemate in its twenty-first series. A controversial figure in the house, she was criticised over her comments regarding the Harvey Weinstein controversy as well as comments perceived to be anti-LGBT to her fellow housemates, most notably to drag queen Courtney Act (Shane Jenek). She finished the competition in second place as runner-up to Jenek, who became popular with viewers for challenging Widdecombe's comments.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2019 Widdecombe appeared on the new celebrity version of "The Crystal Maze", where alongside Sunetra Sarker, Wes Nelson, Matthew Wright and Nikki Sanderson, she won money for the charity Stand Up to Cancer initiative.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2020 Widdecombe travelled to Norway for three days to visit Halden Prison, for the documentary, of "The World’s Most Luxurious Prison."


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Following her retirement, Widdecombe made her stage debut, on 9 December 2011, at the Orchard Theatre, Dartford in the Christmas pantomime "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", alongside "Strictly Come Dancing" judge Craig Revel Horwood. In April 2012, she had a ten-minute non-singing cameo part in Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera "La Fille du Regiment", playing the Duchesse de Crackentorp. Widdecombe reprised her pantomime performance, again with Horwood, at the Swan Theatre, High Wycombe in December 2012.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe stepped in at short notice to play the Evil Queen in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", which was published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, at Bridlington Spa in December 2016. She replaced Lorraine Chase, who had been injured in an accident two weeks before rehearsals were due to commence. This was Widdecombe's first appearance as a pantomime 'baddie'; a role she told the press she had always hoped for.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In December 2017 Widdecombe played the Empress of China in the pantomime "Aladdin" at the Marina Theatre in Lowestoft. The production was the theatre's most successful pantomime to date.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Until her retirement following the 2010 general election, Widdecombe divided her time between her two homes – one in London and one in the countryside village of Sutton Valence, Kent, in her constituency. She sold both of these properties, however, upon deciding to retire at the next general election. She shared her home in London with her widowed mother, Rita Widdecombe, until Rita's death, on 25 April 2007, aged 95. In March 2008, she purchased a house in Haytor Vale, on Dartmoor in Devon, where she retired. Her brother, Malcolm (1937–2010), who was an Anglican canon in Bristol, retired in May 2009 and died in October 2010. Her nephew, Roger Widdecombe, is an Anglican priest. She has never married nor had any children. In November 2007 on BBC Radio 4 she described how a journalist once produced a profile on her with the assumption that she had had at least "one sexual relationship", to which Widdecombe replied: "Be careful, that's the way you get sued". When interviewer Jenni Murray asked if she had ever had a sexual relationship, Widdecombe laughed "it's nobody else's business".


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In a 2001 report in "The Guardian" it was claimed that she had a three-year romance while studying at the University of Oxford. Widdecombe herself confirmed the liaison when, in January 2018, she appeared on the UK reality TV show "Big Brother", explaining that she had ended the romance in order to prioritise her career.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe has a fondness for cats and many other animals such as foxes, and has a section of her website - which is titled the "Widdyweb" - devoted to all the pet cats with which she has shared her life. Widdecombe also adopted two goats at the Buttercups Goat Sanctuary in Boughton Monchelsea near Maidstone, although one later died. In an interview, Widdecombe talked about her appreciation of music despite describing herself as "pretty well tone-deaf".


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Her non-political accomplishments include being a popular novelist. Widdecombe also currently writes a weekly column for the "Daily Express".


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In January 2011 Widdecombe was President of the North of England Education Conference in Blackpool, and gave a speech there supporting selective education and opposing the ban on new grammar schools being built. She has also become a patron of The Grace Charity for M.E.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe revealed, in an April 2012 interview with Matt Chorley of "The Independent", that she was writing her own autobiography, which she described as "rude about all and sundry, but an amount of truth is always necessary".


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe is a Patron of the charity Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land (SHADH) and in 2014 visited the SHADH Donkey Sanctuary in the West Bank.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: Widdecombe became an Anglican in her 30s, after a period of being an agnostic following her departure from religious schooling. Widdecombe is now a practising Roman Catholic; she converted in 1993 after leaving the Church of England. Her reasons for leaving the latter were many, as she explained to reporters from the "New Statesman":


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In October 2006, she pledged to boycott British Airways for suspending a worker who refused to hide her cross. The matter was resolved when the company reversed the suspension.


title: Ann Widdecombe

text: In 2010, Widdecombe turned down the offer to be Britain's next ambassador to the Holy See, being prevented from accepting by suffering a detached retina. She was made a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI for services to politics and public life on 31 January 2013.


title: National Independent Soccer Association

text: The National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States. The league is in the third tier of American soccer and began play in 2019. NISA initially used a fall-to-spring season format with a winter break but have switched to spring-to-fall which is more common in the United States.


title: National Independent Soccer Association

text: On June 6, 2017, it was announced that the newly formed National Independent Soccer Association would begin play in 2018 targeting an initial 8 to 10 teams, later revised to 8 to 12 teams. Initially, the league outlined plans to introduce a promotion/relegation system, once they reach their goal of 24 teams, the first in US professional soccer and in doing so act as a feeder league to the North American Soccer League (NASL);<ref name="New league seeks to finally bring pro/rel to US soccer"></ref> however, the NASL ceased operations prior to those plans being implemented.


title: National Independent Soccer Association

text: On February 13, 2018, NISA co-founder Jack Cummins died suddenly. On May 17, 2018, NISA co-founder Peter Wilt left the NISA to help start up Forward Madison FC in Madison, Wisconsin in USL League One. A committee of club owners has been formed to elect new leadership within the organization.


title: National Independent Soccer Association

text: On August 31, 2018, NISA filed an application with the United States Soccer Federation for sanctioning as a men's professional league, playing at the third division. On February 16, 2019, NISA was provisionally sanctioned as a Division III league by the United States Soccer Federation. In May 2019, it was announced that clubs were not happy with the silence from the league and that Bob Watkins was no longer the President of NISA and that John Prutch had taken the helm as commissioner. During this same timeframe, the league's start date was pushed back from August 2019 to a targeted September start date.


title: National Independent Soccer Association

text: On June 10, 2019, it became known that both Miami FC and California United Strikers FC were approved at the recent board of governors meeting to join NISA, while the previously identified club in Central Florida would play in Baton Rouge, Louisiana instead of Daytona Beach, Florida. However, it was unclear whether either of the teams would start before the league's September start date. On June 27, 2019, it was announced that Oakland Roots SC would have their inaugural season with the league in the spring season, rather than the previously announced NPSL Founders Cup. On August 15, 2019, the league officially announced the addition of Oakland Roots for the 2019 season and Chattanooga FC, Detroit City FC, and Michigan Stars FC for early 2020.


title: National Independent Soccer Association

text: The inaugural season began on August 31, 2019, with a 3–3 draw for Oakland Roots SC and California United Strikers FC in Oakland. On April 27, 2020, following previous postponements, the remainder of the 2019–20 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: National Independent Soccer Association

text: On September 10, 2020, the league announced that one of the original co-founders of the league, Peter Wilt, would be rejoining the league in a club operations capacity by attempting to establish a club in Chicago. On September 15, 2020, one of the founding teams, Oakland Roots, announced that they were leaving the league to join the USL Championship a league in the second division of professional soccer.


title: National Independent Soccer Association

text: On April 27, 2020, NISA revealed a new tournament called the NISA Independent Cup that would have member teams face off against high quality amateur and independent professional sides in a regional format. The tournament and 15 participating teams were announced on July 1.


title: National Independent Soccer Association

text: NISA announced its first affiliation agreement with the Gulf Coast Premier League, a USASA affiliated amateur league based in the gulf coast of the United States, on August 13, 2020. The partnership is set to provide a pathway to professional status for both clubs and players, while also allowing two GCPL teams to qualify for future editions of the Independent Cup based on league play. This was expanded to include the Midwest Premier League and Eastern Premier Soccer League on September 3 and 4, 2020, respectively. On November 23, NISA announced a fourth agreement with the Mountain Premier League.


title: National Independent Soccer Association

text: On September 17, 2020, the league announced that it was establishing a full-year amateur league, the NISA Nation, that would serve as an incubator for amateur and semi-professional clubs that wish to move into NISA's professional league. NISA stated that this full-season amateur league and its previously announced league affiliations would serve as the foundation of a fully open professional to amateur pyramid in the United States.


title: National Independent Soccer Association

text: The league announced an "alliance" with semi-professional women's soccer league United Women's Soccer on January 28, 2021, with the target of launching a professional women's league in 2022. This proposed league would occupy the at the time vacant second tier of professional women's soccer in the United States. Many NISA clubs, including Detroit City FC, Michigan Stars FC, and NJ Teamsterz FC field or had announced fielding UWS and UWS2 teams. However, on March 20, 2021, it was reported that the alliance had broken down and the leagues had gone their separate ways.


title: National Independent Soccer Association

text: In addition to its professional division, NISA operates a full-season amateur league called NISA Nation. NISA's stated long-term goal is to have promotion and relegation between the professional division and NISA Nation, as well as between NISA Nation and seven affiliated regional leagues. Some of those affiliated leagues have entered into promotion and relegation agreements with other leagues, and so a pyramid can be constructed with NISA's Division III professional league at the top.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: Lloyds Banking Group is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds Bank was founded in 1765 but the wider Group's heritage extends over 320 years, dating back to the founding of the Bank of Scotland by the Parliament of Scotland in 1695.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: The Group's headquarters are located at 25 Gresham Street in the City of London, while its registered office is on The Mound in Edinburgh. It also operates office sites in Birmingham, Bristol, West Yorkshire and Glasgow. The Group also has extensive overseas operations in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Its headquarters for business in the European Union is in Berlin, Germany.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: The business operates under a number of distinct brands, including Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows. Former Chief Executive António Horta-Osório told "The Banker", "We will keep the different brands because the customers are very different in terms of attitude".


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: Lloyds Banking Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It had a market capitalisation of approximately as of 1 August 2022 the 19th-largest of any LSE listed company and has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: Lloyds Bank is one of the oldest banks in the UK, tracing its establishment to Taylors and Lloyds founded in 1765 in Birmingham by button maker John Taylor and iron producer and dealer Sampson Lloyd II. Through a series of mergers, Lloyds became one of the Big Four banks in the UK.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: Bank of Scotland, which originated in the 17th century, is the second-oldest surviving UK bank after the Bank of England. In 2001, a wave of consolidations in the UK banking market led the former Halifax Building Societywhich originated in 1853to agree to a £10.8 billion merger with Bank of Scotland.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: Trustee Savings Bank (TSB) can trace its roots back to the first savings bank founded by Henry Duncan in Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, in 1810. TSB itself was created in 1985 by an Act of Parliament that merged all the remaining savings banks in England & Wales as TSB Bank plc and in Scotland (except Airdrie Savings Bank) as TSB Scotland plc.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: In 2000, the group acquired Scottish Widows, a mutual life-assurance company based in Edinburgh, in a deal worth £7 billion. This made the group the second-largest UK provider of life assurance and pensions after Prudential. In September the same year, Lloyds TSB purchased Chartered Trust from Standard Chartered Bank for £627 million to form Lloyds TSB Asset Finance Division, which provides motor, retail and personal finance in the United Kingdom under the trading name Black Horse.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: Lloyds TSB continued to take part in the consolidation, making a takeover bid for Abbey National in 2001, which was later rejected by the Competition Commission. In October 2003, Lloyds TSB Group agreed on the sale of its subsidiary NBNZ Holdings Limitedcomprising the Group's New Zealand banking and insurance operationsto Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. In July 2004, Lloyds TSB Group announced the sale of its business in Argentina to Banco Patagonia Sudameris S.A. and its business in Colombia to Primer Banco del Istmo, S.A.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: On 20 December 2005, Lloyds TSB announced that it had reached an agreement to sell its credit card business Goldfish to Morgan Stanley Bank International Limited for £175 million. In 2007, Lloyds TSB announced that it had sold its Abbey Life assurance division to Deutsche Bank for £977 million.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: On 17 September 2008, the BBC reported that HBOS was in takeover talks with Lloyds TSB, in response to a precipitous drop in HBOS's share price. The talks concluded successfully that evening with a proposal to create a banking giant which would hold a third of UK mortgages. An announcement was made on 18 September 2008.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: On 19 November 2008, the new acquisition and government preference share purchase was agreed by Lloyds TSB shareholders. HBOS shareholders overwhelming approved the deal on 12 December. Lloyds TSB Group changed its name to Lloyds Banking Group upon completion of the takeover on 19 January 2009.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: On 12 February 2009, Eric Daniels, the CEO of the Group, was questioned about the banking crisis during a session of the Treasury Select Committee of the House of Commons. One of the key issues concerned Lloyds' takeover of HBOS and the amount of due diligence carried out before the acquisition. Daniels said that a company would always like to do more due diligence on another company, but there are legal limits on how much is possible before an actual acquisition. Losses were slightly more than the £10 billion originally identified by the due diligence owing to write-offs of property loans because of falling property prices and the lack of demand for it. The then-Chairman of Lloyds, Sir Victor Blank, said in August 2009 that losses had been "at the worst end of expectations", and that the Lloyds board was surprised by the speed at which the losseswhich were caused by the unexpectedly sharp contraction of the world economy in late 2008 and early 2009happened. This position was confirmed by Archie Kane, a senior Lloyds executive in Scotland, in evidence to the Scottish parliament's economy committee in December 2009.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: On 13 February 2009, Lloyds Banking Group said that the losses at HBOS were greater than had been anticipated, at around £10 billion. The share price of Lloyds Banking Group fell 32% on the London Stock Exchange, carrying other bank shares with it.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: On 13 October 2008, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a government plan for the Treasury to invest £37 billion (, ) of new capital into major UK banksincluding Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Lloyds TSB and HBOSto avert a collapse of the financial sector. Barclays avoided taking a capital investment from the UK Government by raising capital privately and HSBC moved capital to its UK business from its other businesses overseas.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: It was later confirmed that Lloyds TSB would have been required by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to take additional capital from the government if it had not taken over HBOS. After the recapitalisations and Lloyds' acquisition of HBOS, the UK Government held a 43.4% stake in Lloyds Banking Group.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: In February 2009, after it became apparent that the recession would be deeper than originally anticipated, the FSA was instructed to "stress test" the banks against a severe economic downturn. The FSA stated that the assumptions underlying the stress test were not intended to be a forecast of what was likely to happen, but to simulate a near catastrophic economic scenario. These assumptions included:


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: The conclusion from this exercise was that Lloyds would need additional capital if such a scenario ever occurred. Because the wholesale funding markets were effectively closed at the time, in March 2009 Lloyds made a deal with the UK government consisting of two elements:


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: Lloyds impairments peaked in the first half of 2009; by mid-2009 the Asset Protection Scheme increasingly looked like a poor deal for Lloyds. Following negotiations, the government confirmed on 3 November 2009 that Lloyds would not enter the schemealthough RBS still would. Instead, Lloyds launched a rights issue to raise capital from existing shareholders; as an existing 43.4% shareholder the government chose to take part in this and thus maintained its shareholding at 43.4%. Following this, the National Audit Office calculated the government's average buying price for its entire stake in Lloyds to be about 74 pence.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: It was announced in the Government's Pre-Budget Report on 9 December 2009 that the forecast for the total loss to taxpayers for all the bank bailouts had been reduced from £50 billion to £10 billionin part because of the restructuring of the Government's Asset Protection Scheme. The final part of the December 2009 capital raise involved issuing new shares to debt holders in February 2010. This diluted existing shareholdersincluding the UK Government, whose shareholding was reduced from 43.4% to around 41%. According to the Accord trade union general secretary Ged Nichols, Lloyds Banking Group had cut 30,000 jobs between February 2009 and August 2011; and in August 2011 it announced another 1,300 job losses. The group sold its 70% stake in insurance company Esure to Esure Group Holdings on 11 February 2010. The share was valued at around £185 million.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: On 4 November 2012, it was reported that Lloyds was considering selling its 60% stake in St James's Place Wealth Management to raise around £1 billion. In April 2013, Lloyds sold its loss-making Spanish retail operationoriginally Banco Halifax Hispaniaand the local investment management business in Spain to Banco de Sabadell. Lloyds will receive a 1.8% stake in Sabadell worth about €84 million and an additional sum of up to €20 million over the next five years. In September 2013, it was reported that the UK government was planning to sell up to a quarter of its shares in Lloyds Banking Group. The government sold 6% of its shares on 17 September 2013 at 75p, raising £3.2 billion and reducing its stake to 32.7%. The UK government then sold a further 7.8% on 26 March 2014 at 75.5p raising a further £4.2bn and reducing its stake to 24.9%. A trading plan of incremental sales during 2015 reduced the publicly owned stake to below 10% by the end of October. Sales resumed in November 2016, as the holding was reduced to 7.99%. On 17 March 2017, the British Government confirmed its remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group had been sold.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: The UK Government's purchase of a 43.4% stake in the group in 2009 was considered as state aid; under European Commission competition laws, the group would be required to sell a portion of its business. The group's divestment plancodenamed "Verde"identified 632 branches which would be transferred to a new business. Customers with accounts held by the branches, and staff employed within them, would be transferred. The new business would be formed from some Lloyds TSB branches in England and Wales, all branches of Lloyds TSB Scotland plc and Cheltenham & Gloucester plc; these would operate under the TSB brand as TSB Bank plc. The remainder of the Lloyds TSB business would be rebranded as Lloyds Bank.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: Lloyds Banking Group reached a Heads of Terms agreement in July 2012 to sell the Verde branches to The Co-operative Bank for £750 million. The final transfer of TSB Bank plc to the new owner was due to be completed by late 2013. In February 2013, it was reported that Lloyds Banking Group were considering a stock market flotation of the TSB business as an alternative, should the transfer not be completed. On 24 April 2013, The Co-operative Bank decided not to proceed with the acquisition because of the economic downturn and the tough regulatory environment imposed on banks. Lloyds Banking Group said that the rebranding to TSB Bank would still take place and that the new bank will be divested through an initial public offering in 2014. TSB Bank began operations on 9 September 2013, under CEO Paul Pester.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: Lloyds Banking Group announced that 25% of TSB's shares would be floated on 24 June 2014; however, with the offer being 10 times oversubscribed, 35% of TSB's shares were sold at 260p on 20 June. Banco Sabadell agreed to purchase TSB in March 2015, and completed the acquisition on 8 July 2015. The purchase meant Lloyds sold its final holding in TSB.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: Lloyds Banking Group is an active supporter of disability rights and best practice; it is a Gold member of the Employers’ Forum on Disability. In 2010, the group helped create and currently sponsors the Royal Association for Disability Rights (RADAR) Radiate network, which aims to support and develop a talent pool of people with disabilities and health conditions, and to potentially act as a source of thinking for organisations on how 'disabled talent' is best spotted and developed.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: In 2011, Lloyds Banking Group established the Lloyds Scholars Programme, a social mobility programme aimed at UK students, in partnership with nine leading UK universities. The Scholars Programme takes 15 students per university per year and consists of a £1000 per annum scholarship paid directly to the student to help with living costs, a Lloyds Banking Group mentor and two ten-week internships, paid at £18,000 pro rata. The programme supports students throughout their university career and requires Scholars to complete 100 hours of volunteering in their local community, per year of their degree. There are also restrictions on who can apply, which exclude medical and veterinary students, as well as anyone with a residual household income as defined by their student funding body of more than £25,000 per annum, since the programme is a social mobility initiative. Lloyds Scholars must be completing an undergraduate course at one of the Group's nine partner universities:


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: The Scholars Programme is part of a wider set of operations conducted by Lloyds Banking Group in order to fulfill their goal of 'Helping Britain Prosper'.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: In May 2009, Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets was recognised as ‘Bank of the Year’ for the fifth year running at Real FD/ CBI FDs' Excellence Awards.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: In October 2009's "What Investment" magazine awards, Halifax won Best Savings Account Provider and Halifax Share Dealing was also named Best Share Dealing Service.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: In October 2009's "Consumer Money Awards", Halifax won Best First Time Mortgage Provider. Lloyds' brands were commended in several other categories, including Cheltenham & Gloucester for Best Remortgage Provider and Best High Street Mortgage Provider; Lloyds TSB for Best Current Account Provider, Best Student Account Provider and Best Customer Service Provider; and Halifax for Best ISA Provider and Best High Street Savings Provider.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: In November 2009's "Your Mortgage Awards", Halifax won the award for Best Overall Mortgage Lender for the eighth year running, as well as the award for Best Large Loans Mortgage Lender. Birmingham Midshires was named Best Specialist and Buy-to-Let Mortgage Lender, and Lloyds TSB won the award for Best Overseas Mortgage Lender.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: A 2010 report by "The Wall Street Journal" described how Credit Suisse, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, and other banks were involved in helping the Alavi Foundation, Bank Melli, the Government of Iran, and others circumvent US laws banning financial transactions with certain states. They did this by stripping information out of wire transfers, thereby concealing the source of funds. Lloyds Banking Group settled with the US government for . The US government's Manhattan District Attorney's Office was involved, although the case was merged with one at the federal US Department of Justice.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: In 2009, a case was brought against Lloyds by HM Revenue and Customs on grounds of tax avoidance. Lloyds was accused of disguising loans to American companies as investments in order to reduce the tax liability on them.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: Lloyds TSB received 9,952 complaints via the Financial Ombudsman Service in the last half of 2009. This, when added to the other brands of the Lloyds Banking Group, was twice the number of complaints received by Barclaysthe next-most-complained-about UK bank. The Financial Ombudsman Service upheld fewer complaints against Lloyds TSB than it did against Barclays.


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: In 2014, Lloyds launched the 'Islamic Account', a current account aimed at Muslims and which it stated was compliant with Sharia law - namely, the prohibition of credit or debit interest. Critics of the new policy stated that the account amounted to religious discrimination, as users of the Sharia-compliant account would not incur interest if they went overdrawn, in contrast with users of typical current accounts. The bank responded that the account was available to both Muslims and non-Muslims, and that comparisons of interest rates between its Islamic Account and traditional current accounts were "meaningless".


title: Lloyds Banking Group

text: Lloyds Banking Group has been criticised for failing to compensate, or even apologise to, victims of fraud perpetrated by employees of HBOS. LBG was accused of treating the whistle-blowers involved in the HBOS Reading Fraud poorly. Customers Paul and Nikki Turner presented evidence of the fraud to the board but were ignored. Indeed, the bank tried to evict them from their home on twenty-two occasions. Sally Masterton was an accountant working for Lloyds who greatly assisted Thames Valley Police in their investigation of the fraud, codenamed Operation Hornet. She wrote a report on the fraud at the request of the bank, called Project Lord Turnbull. She subsequently left the bank and claimed for constructive dismissal.