Karen Danczuk has said she wants to be a "voice of the people" as she launched a bid to stand for Parliament.

The TV celebrity, who first shot to fame for posting a series of revealing selfies on Twitter, has applied to be selected to stand for the Labour Party in the marginal Bury North constituency.

The 33-year-old said: "Politics is changing, you only have to look across Europe and the rest of the world.

"Parliament needs more common sense and someone who can connect with voters.

"I really believe I'm a voice of the people."

Mrs Danczuk has served as a Labour councillor for four years in her home town Rochdale and was dubbed Britain's Sexiest Politician by the Sunday People.

She is currently estranged from her husband and father of her two sons, Simon Danczuk, the sitting MP in Rochdale.

He is currently suspended by the party over a sex-text scandal with a young constituent.

Mrs Danczuk will find out next week if she has been selected by Labour as its candidate in Bury North, where Tory David Nuttall is defending a wafer-thin majority of just 378.

The snap election has meant usual party selection procedures of a panel interview and a vote by local members have been suspended.

Instead, candidates in seats where there is no Labour MP such as Bury North will be selected by a panel of the party's ruling National Executive Committee.

A spokeswoman for the party said candidates selected to stand for Labour in the June 8 poll will be made public on May 2.

Mrs Danczuk has campaigned on child abuse issues after waiving her right to anonymity and revealing she herself was raped by her own brother as a child.

She gave evidence in court against Michael Burke, who was jailed for 15 years for abusing her and two other women after a trial last December.

Later she said she wanted to get back into politics to use her fame to help victims of abuse.