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Evening Standard
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Dr Victoria Bateman: Who is the naked Brexit protester and why did she strip off on Good Morning Britain and Radio 4?

Dr Victoria Bateman on Good Morning Britain (Picture: ITV)

A naked Brexit protester has made headlines again after she stripped off for an interview live on breakfast television.

Dr Victoria Bateman appeared on Good Morning Britain today with just the words ‘Brexit leaves Britain naked’ written across her chest.

It comes after the Cambridge University economic fellow stunned BBC Radio 4's John Humphrys by taking off her clothes during an interview last week.

So who is Dr Bateman and why is she the 'naked economist'?

Here's everything you need to know.

John Humphrys interviews naked feminist economist on Today programme

Who is Dr Victoria Bateman?

Dr Bateman is an economics fellow at Cambridge University, a feminist campaigner and an anti-Brexit protester.

She first made the headlines in 2014 when the feminist academic commissioned and posed nude for a life-size portrait by Anthony Connolly which was shown at the Mall Galleries.

Dr Bateman later wrote that she posed naked to ask questions about the sexualisation of the female body.

And then in July 2016, Dr Bateman walked naked into a meeting at the Faculty of Economics with the phrase 'Brexit Leaves Britain naked' emblazoned across her breasts and stomach, in protest at the result of the EU referendum earlier that year.

Richard Madeley goes ‘full Alan Partridge’ as he interviews naked Brexit protester Dr Victoria Bateman on GMB

Dr Bateman, who describes herself as a "passionate remainer", had previously spoken of how she believes leaving the EU will be bad for Britain's economy.

Since then, she has also appeared at a university dinner wearing a see-through bodysuit with the words "my body my choice" written on her chest and in the same year gave a talk at the Office for National Statistics with just a few £5 and £20 notes covering her body.

Another protest in January this year saw her deliver a naked lecture at the Cambridge Junction theatre before she got attendees to sign her body to create "a living and breathing human petition against Brexit", according to her website.

Following the lecture, she appeared on Radio 4 where she stunned Humphrys by taking off her clothes during the live interview and challenging Jacob Rees-Mogg to a naked debate, with the phrase 'Brexit leaves Britain naked' again written on her chest.

She then repeated her stunt on ITV on Tuesday morning, reiterating her calls to take on arch-Brexiteer Mr Rees-Mogg in a debate.

Why does she protest naked?

Dr Bateman told GMB presenters Kate Garraway and Richard Madeley: "I am a woman comfortable in my own body, in control of my body, who is happy to use my body in order to deliver an important message about the most important issue facing Britain in a whole generation, to raise concerns about this entire Brexit project.

"Why as a woman should I only be able to use my body for sex and babies, why shouldn’t I also use my body to deliver an important message."

She has previously used her platform to hit out at Brexit, saying the British economy "faces many, many problems right now from housing to the NHS, and the European Union is not the cause of those problems".

During the interview on Radio 4, she told Mr Humphrys that she decided to talk about Brexit with nothing on to demonstrate that leaving the EU is the "emperor's new clothes".

She described women's bodies as "one of the big battlegrounds that we face today", and that people "are quick to judge women purely based on their bodies".

After delivering her talk at the ONS, Dr Bateman posted a video on Twitter in which she said her outfit "aimed to combine the symbolism of modern day feminism and the symbol of economics".

She said economists needed to take feminism seriously otherwise "women's rights will continue to be under threat in the world" and that "economists need to become intimately familiar with modern day feminism if we are to make progress".

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