Celebrity Big Brother star India Willoughby used the analogy of a visit to the dentist as she shared the details of her gender reassignment with the housemates.

During their second full day in the Channel 5 house, she told Rachel Johnson and Ashley James: “It was like having a tooth out. I have been in more pain going to the dentist.”

After waking up from surgery two years ago, she said: “I felt no difference whatsoever, I was just relieved it was all over and done with.”

But her mention that her operations were carried out through the NHS threatened to spark an argument with former MP Ann Widdecombe, who earlier in the show accidentally referred to Willoughby as a “he”.

But the pair seemed to reach an agreement.

Widdecombe responded: “You’ve got to ask yourself what the priority should be, and match that against someone going blind or children with cancer.”

Willoughby firmly agreed and said that there should be more charges introduced by the service, but pointed out that help to provide gender reassignment operations could help to lower suicide rates.

However, there was almost a frosty moment between Widdecombe and Jess Impiazzi, as the Ex On The Beach star confessed that she did not vote in the EU referendum.

She told her younger counterpart: “In a show celebrating 100 years of women winning the right to vote, you didn’t bother to vote?”

Widdecombe also entered into debate with journalist Johnson over the subject of being a working mother.

While never having had children herself, Widdecombe decried Johnson’s decision to employ childcare while she continued to pursue her career, saying: “I would have loved to have children but it was never important enough. I don’t understand this business of having children and then getting someone else to look after them.”

Johnson told how she personally struggled with the idea of being a stay-at-home mother, saying: “Women should not be disbarred from working if they have children.”