Former Maidstone and The Weald MP, Ann Widdecombe, has been blasted by Celebrity Big Brother fans for accidentally referring to trans housemate, India Willoughby, as 'he'.

During a conversation about about contestants names in last night's episode of the hit Chanel 5 program, newsreader India, who is transgender, joked about her father naming her after his favorite curry.

As Jess Impiazzi began to believe her, the outspoken retired politician, 70, said: "I think he's pulling your leg."

Shocked, India quickly corrected her before Ann apologised, saying: "Oh, I beg your pardon."

Later in the episode, India cleared the air and explained while being mis-gendered did hurt, she was aware it wasn't meant to be a malicious comment.

She said: 'I know it was genuine mistake, it's fine, it is difficult, it's not a big issue, but you know it hurts trans-people when it happens... I know you didn't mean it in that way,' as Ann once again apologised.

Ann responded: "If you hadn’t been talking about it so much I wouldn’t have said it. It certainly wasn't deliberate."

Some of the comments on Twitter described the former Maidstone and the Weald MP as 'disrespectful' and questioned how it could have happened when there are no men in the Big Brother House.

Others felt India was trying to make Ann look bad by going over the event and emphasising it wasn't a big deal to her.

Earlier in the evening, India had been talking about her decision to have a sex-change operation and said when she was living as a man, it was as if her body 'didn't match her brain.'

Ann also clashed with Maggie over religion, as Maggie quizzed her over the Catholic church's claimed previous history with 'abuse' - shooting down the discussion Ann blasted: 'If you want a one-sentence answer then we'll finish, unless have the patience to see something all the way through.'

Celebrity Big Brother this year is being billed as the 'Year of the Woman' but despite this Ann told the group at dinner she didn't believe women could be priests and do God's work.