Rent-to-buy plans a ‘flop’
PROPOSALS to stop poor people from being ripped off when buying household appliances could save them just 37p a week.
The Financial Conduct Authority has put forward measures, including a cap of 100% on the interest firms can charge and a limit on prices, to help people forced to buy goods via rent-to-buy schemes.
But the Centre for Responsible Credit say the FCA plans are a “flop” and do not go far enough.
IT’S a feat to make professional nice girl Holly Willoughby call you out on your behaviour. But if one person could do it, it would be Gemma Collins. The Dancing on Ice reality star has had rather a dramatic 48 hours.
Having allegedly left Sunday’s live show 25 minutes early because she was “bored”, Holly later slammed her on This Morning for a lack of “professionalism”, prompting Gemma to threaten to quit.
Sources close to Gemma claimed she thought there was a “conspiracy to bring down the show’s biggest star”.
Meanwhile, claims of diva demands got more extravagant – from outfit changes to foot massages. Some have been true, some she might have just wished she thought of.
Viewers were told the whole studio – including Torvill and Dean – was kept waiting 10 minutes while she had a nap, though a source insisted Gemma did not take a nap and said she left the studio when she thought she had finished.
The week before, her introductory video showed her boasting about being “Beyonce on ice” before she stumbled out like a gold-sequinned Bambi.
For the majority of Dancing on Ice viewers who did not watch Gemma cut her showbiz teeth on ITV2’s The Only Way Is Essex, she has hit Sunday night primetime TV like an avalanche.
But then viewers new to the former used-car saleswoman are not aware of her alter-ego The GC.
And is she – or The GC – TV’s biggest and most out-of-control diva? Or is Gemma, 37, actually a reality TV genius?
Now on her 12th reality show, whatever she is selling, TV bosses certainly seem to be buying.
Gemma’s break came in 2011 when ex-TOWIE star Amy Childs’ mum suggested to producers they screen-test her. Two weeks later she joined and the boat was well and truly rocked.
Size 16 curvy Gemma was among a super skinny cast yet she got stuck in and ended up in a love triangle with her now-boyfriend James “Arg” Argent and his on-off girlfriend Lydia Bright.
It was not long before her brash alterego The GC emerged, and Gemma could not be contained by just TOWIE.
Indeed, she has arguably done better than many of her co-stars in terms of hitting primetime and headlines.
First there was ITV’s Splash! in 2014, where Tom Daley taught her to dive, only for her to end up covered in bruises. After losing a dive-off she said: “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.”
Months later she became the first
TOWIE girl to do I’m A Celebrity! She was still on the helicopter when she broke down with mascara running down her face. She screamed at the pilot: “Can you stop. I need to get out, seriously I’m going to be sick, I can’t do it, no way!”
Some 72 hours later she quit the show, moaning that being given porridge was “against her human rights”. She said: “People that murder get treated better. Even a murderer gets fed three times a day.” True, but they also don’t get a handsome payday.
Yet it only made her more attractive to TV producers. The
GIANT PADS At ITV Summer Party GEMMA ON BEING SERVED PORRIDGE ON I’M A CELEB
woman who once declared on TOWIE: “I’ve earned my divaship” brought that diva to Celebrity Big Brother in 2016. Just 48 hours in she was bored, yelling: “I am f***ing gamed out. It’s like having a job and working 24/7 for two days on the trot!”
And when ex-EastEnders star John Partridge accused her of making him cry, she responded: “I just don’t believe it,”, later telling housemates: “You’re obsessed with me and I love it.”
That’s an understatement. Gemma
People that murder get treated better, get fed three times a day