Ex-Apprentice star Michelle Dewberry says the North is treated as "an afterthought" as she stands for Brexit Party in Hull West and Hessle

Ms Dewberry is representing Nigel Farage's party in her home seat - where she received 1,898 votes in 2017 as she finished fourth behind Labour's Emma Hardy while running as an independent.

The announcement came as Mr Farage vowed hundreds of Brexit Party candidates will fight the election, despite warnings that they could hand victory to Jeremy Corbyn by splitting the Leave vote.

The constituency, where Ms Hardy has a 8,025 vote majority over the Conservatives ahead of December 12, voted 68 per cent to Leave in the referendum.

Nominations for the General Election must be in by 4pm this afternoon.

Ms Dewberry, 40, who won the second series of hit BBC show The Apprentice in 2006, said in a statement released on Twitter that she was "born and bred" in the constituency.

She added: "No matter what these people say - now that a General Election is going on - the North is, and consistently has been, an afterthought."

And she denied she was splitting the vote, adding: "There is nobody who owns your vote other than you, yourselves."

She said: "We have consistently heard people talking about tactical voting. If that does not show you that we have a broken political system, I don't know what will."

Other candidates standing in Hull West and Hessle include Conservative Scott Bell, Green Mike Lammiman and Liberal Democrat David Nolan.

During the event in Hull today, Nigel Farage stressed he will not stand down any more candidates in the upcoming election, telling voters: "We are going to fight Labour in every seat in this country, be in no doubt."

The Brexit Party leader said that his candidates had received abuse from people wanting them to stand down, telling an audience: "I think that is a complete and utter disgrace, I really do."

He said that, without Brexit Party MPs in Parliament, he feared Boris Johnson would produce something that is "Brexit in name only."

Mr Farage added that he thought that the Tories would be grateful after he withdrew candidates in 317 seats the Conservatives won in the last election, but said that Mr Johnson's party had shown "a refusal on their part to give an inch" since the announcement.

A number of Twitter users pointed out an error on Mr Farage's Twitter account, in which he stated he was "live from South Yorkshire", despite being in Hull in East Yorkshire.