RUSTIE Lee, the Kidderminster-based celebrity who has landed a role on EastEnders, is bidding to become an MEP.

She is putting her name forward for UKIP selection in next year's Euro elections and is also considering standing in either Wolverhampton or Perry Barr at any future general election.

Lee, who sprang to fame as a television chef, addressed 200 UKIP activists and members of the public during a party rally at Coleshill, near Birmingham.

Describing the new EU Treaty as a "political takeover", she said: "Black people should understand that this issue is, in no way, racist," adding her father was in the RAF during the Second World War and she was proud to be British.

She went on to sign copies of her new cookery book, A Taste of the Caribbean.

Lee polled more than 1,000 votes finishing fifth as UKIP's candidate for the Wyre Forest parliamentary seat in the 2005 general election.