REFORM UK's only woman MP has defended posting about helping a woman constituent and fraudster, once dubbed the ‘UK’s worst benefits cheat' by a national newspaper.

Runcorn MP Sarah Pochin, who grew up in the Forest of Dean and was educated at Monmouth School for Girls, posted a clip of 76-year-old Ethan McGill saying she had been helped by Reform, and later obtained an adapted two-bedroom bungalow.

The video of the pensioner – jailed for nearly six years in 2019 for fraudulently obtaining £774,000 from her late father's war pension and benefits – was captioned "helping people like Ethel is why I love my job".

But the clip was removed within hours after LBC revealed that Ms McGill was an amateur actress who had previously been locked up for cheating the system, and had feigned dementia and claimed she needed a wheelchair when she appeared in court.

McGill continued to claim her father's benefits after his death in 2004, prompting Judge Steven Everett to accuse her of "breathtaking dishonesty" that had "sullied" her father's name when she admitted the frauds at Liverpool Crown Court.

"Part of your problem is that nobody, including me, believes that you are ill, and that you have been putting this on for years."

Ms Pochin later defended posting the film and the party’s stance on benefit fraud, saying on X: “As an MP, I have to take people at face value.

"My office does not run background checks on constituents who come to us asking for support. The issues my office assisted with were entirely unrelated to that offence.

“Reform UK stands firmly against benefit fraud and abuse of the system.

"But a responsible MP must deal with each case on its merits and support constituents who ask for help.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has pledged the UK's largest ever benefits bill cut in history if they win the next general election.