Thatcher to enter the TV jungle

Baroness Thatcher's daughter is in talks with the producers of I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! to appear in the next series of the hit show.

Carol was last week filming an interview for the programme, which marks the final stage in the selection process.

The series is due to return next month for a fifth run - the first time ITV1 has screened the show this year. I'm a Celebrity has proved to be a huge ratings success and a cash cow for the network in terms of phone-vote income, but the programme has to fit in with the busy schedule of presenters Ant and Dec.

An insider from the show said Carol had made it down to the final few candidates: "She is the sort of person who would fit in with that mix of people we try to find for I'm a Celebrity."

Journalist Carol, 52, was among the guests who celebrated her mother's 80th birthday just over a week ago at a party along with 650 other guests at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge, London.

Former contestant and IoS columnist Janet Street-Porter said: "Anyone who could put up with a mum like Maggie, a horribly spoilt twin brother like Mark and a dad like Denis has my vote as Queen of the Jungle."

In 1991, Carol achieved notoriety when she failed to pay the community charge, the controversial local taxation payment introduced by her mother.

Since then she has published a biography of her father, called Below the Parapet.

Her twin brother, Mark, received a four-year suspended jail term earlier this year and a £265,000 fine in South Africa, following a plea-bargain deal over his involvement in an alleged attempted coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.

Other contestants rumoured to be taking part in the new series of I'm a Celebrity are Alex James from the chart band Blur, who has recently signed a publishing deal for his memoirs.