A FORMER Top Gear presenter, Buddhist convert and an owner of a short-lived cannabis coffee shop, has thrown her hat in the ring as parliamentary candidate.

Not your typical candidate, Beki Adam, 48, is taking on her most difficult transformation yet, to challenge long-term Mid Sussex MP Sir Nicholas Soames who has a majority of almost 7,500.

The independent candidate, who will challenge the Conservative MP in May, became a TV star in her 20s as a presenter on Top Gear before opting for the quieter life of being a Buddhist monk in 1999.

In between she spent an afternoon in police cells in 1992 when she sold cannabis cakes from a Brighton coffee shop as part of a drug legalisation protest.

She jokes that she ran the shortest-lived business in the South East after it was shut down by police in just 57 minutes.

Ms Adam is unfazed by contesting a seat occupied by Churchill’s grandson and in a constituency which has been Tory since it was formed.

Also fighting for the seat is Labour candidate Greg Mountain, UKIP’s Tony Brothers, Green Miranda Diboll and Liberal Democrat Daisy Cooper.