CAMPAIGNING television presenter Esther Rantzen said she is “80 per cent on” to stand as a candidate in the next general election.

Esther, who has a home in the New Forest, was in Luton yesterday morning talking to potential voters.

She said she would spend a week consulting friends before making up her mind whether to stand.

“What I have made up my mind about is that I love Luton,” she said.

“It’s a great place, I have met young people, old people and people of all ethnic groups and they have all been very welcoming.

“What people tell me is the protest vote itself is very important.

“It’s a way of expressing what the electorate feels about the scandal that has been going on.

“They want someone they can trust.”

She watched Speaker Michael Martin’s announcement he will stand down on June 21 on television.

“I think it was the right thing for him to do he should and could have done it earlier.

“I think he belongs to an out-of-date era of tribalism and he saw his job as protecting the interests of the MPs as if they were members of his union.”