©BBC
Artist Frank Shepherd was among the people who built the guy


An effigy of Cherie Blair will go up in flames as part of a Kent bonfire society's Guy Fawkes celebrations.

She is the latest celebrity guy chosen by Edenbridge Bonfire Society, which burnt a model of her husband, Tony Blair, while he was prime minister.

That was in protest at the foxhunting ban, but organiser Charles Laver said this year's choice was not political.

"We are doing this for fun and to tell all the people around the area about our society," he said.

Other effigies have included racing pundit John McCririck, Saddam Hussein and politicians John Prescott and Edwina Currie.

In the news

"We don't even think about who it will be until two weeks before the event because we try to pick on somebody who is going to be in the news," Mr Laver told BBC Radio Kent.

"This year was quite difficult - Heather Mills was one of the people we were thinking about.

"But we came up with Cherie Blair because she has characteristics you can exaggerate quite well.

"Heather hasn't got a face that people would recognise from a distance."

He said that since the year 2000, the 27ft effigies had been constructed on steel frames to keep the cost down.

"We fill them with shredded paper, cover them with dust sheets, spray and then paint them.

"We started work on Cherie on Sunday and did it in three days."

He said that in the bonfire society's heyday, people came from as far away as Liverpool on coaches, but now visitors were mostly from the surrounding towns and villages.