REFORM's first and only woman MP, who grew up locally, has come under fire from opposition MPs after criticising the number of coloured and Asian people appearing in TV adverts.

Former Monmouth School for Girls pupil Sarah Pochin said on a live TalkTV phone-in last week: "It drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people."

Both Labour and the Lib Dems accused the Runcorn and Helsby MP, who was elected in a by-election last May by just six votes, of making a racist comment, and called on Reform leader Nigel Farage to kick her out of the party.

But while Farage described her remark as "ugly", he said he "understands the basic point", and in his view it wasn't racist.

Thirty five MPS have also called on the Parliamentary standards commissioner to investigate her comments, which she subsequently apologised for, saying it had been "phrased poorly", while still claiming that many adverts were "unrepresentative of British society" and the advertising industry had gone "DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) mad".

Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Justice Secretary David Lammy, and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood were among those weighing in.

In a withering put down in front of a gathering of politicians and journalists, Ms Mahmood said: "I must say it is hard balancing being Home Secretary with starring in all those adverts that Sarah Pochin has been watching.

"Sarah, if you are here tonight, I am sorry you have to watch another brown face up on stage…"

It's not the first time the party's first female MP and former Tory councillor, who grew up in the Forest of Dean where her Army officer father was based, has caused controversy.

The 56-year-old Loughborough University banking and finance graduate was reprimanded in 2018 by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) for misconduct as a magistrate.

The JCIO said she had used her judicial position to influence colleagues' views in a political context and breached confidentiality by publicising the complaint against her.

The JCIO stated that her actions "fell below the standards expected of a magistrate", although Mr Farage claimed this year the allegations were politically motivated.

Her political career began in 2015 when she won a seat for the Conservatives in the Cheshire East Council election, replacing a scandal-ridden UKIP incumbent.

However, she was expelled from the Tory group in 2020 when the governing Labour-Independent administration offered her the position of Mayor of Cheshire East and she accepted.

She then sat as an Independent, only to rejoin the Conservative Party in 2022, which saw her suspended from the Chesire East Independent Group.

Last May, she stood as the Reform candidate in Runcorn and Helsby, overturning the 14,700-vote majority Labour achieved at the 2024 general election by the narrowest Parliamentary by-election majority in modern British history.

In her maiden House of Commons speech, she referred to "over 900 illegal immigrants–that we know about – living in Runcorn", and then called on Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions to "ban the burka".

Meanwhile, the MP is also facing a legal challenge to her by-election victory from the candidate who came last out of 15 candidates, Graham Moore of the English Constitution Party who polled just 50 votes.

But Ms Pochin's bid to have the challenge dismissed was thrown out by three senior judges on Thursday (October 30), who ruled that a “trial of the petition” should take place before an election court.