She was central to the British pig farmers' campaign to raise awareness of an agricultural industry in decline. But now porker Winnie is taking life easy in the countryside near Chipping Norton. Katherine MacAlister reports . . .

She's the politician on everybody's lips after being pictured mixing with the likes of Ken Livingstone and William Hague.

She was a even a candidate for London Mayor and caught the attention of millions as she set up a four month vigil outside the Houses of Parliament to highlight the plight of pig farmers all over Britain.

In fact, not since Magaret Thatcher has one female caused such an upset at Westminster. And although the Government view her as an embarrassment, she never drops her guard and remains steadfast and cheery throughout.

Yes, Winnie the pig is now a firm national favourite, making the sort of headlines the Frank Dobson campaign team could only have dreamt of. But between campaigning and socialising she retires to her Chipping Norton residence where she is thoroughly spoilt by her new owners Richard and Frances Slade. They stopped pig farming two years ago because of the current crisis in the industry.

Perhaps one of the reasons for such a happy and adaptable nature is that Winnie knows only too well that had it not been for the Save British Pig Farming campaign, she would be in piggy heaven by now.

"We needed a focal point for our campaign something to look at," Frances Slade explains. "We'd tried leafleting but no one was interested so we thought we'd take a pig with us on the road and try the 'in your face' approach. One farmer had a spare pig because she was infertile and that was Winnie. Otherwise she would have been made into pork chops by now."

Little did Winnie know that instead of a trip to the slaughterhouse she was actually expected to seek her fortune on the streets of London. But she soon got used to the idea and thrived in her new Parliament Square habitat. "At first we were going to set up camp at the end of Downing Street but that spot was already occupied so we decided to sit outside Parliament itself. It was a brilliant idea because all the MPs going in and out saw us and it really brought the problems home to them.

"We wanted to point out that Winnie was about to become a thing of the past because the pig industry is on its knees," Frances says.

So how did Winnie adapt to her new metropolitan existence? "We thought she might be a bit unnerved by all the smoke and noise but she wasn't at all. She is a very sociable animal so she loved all the attention and even showed-off," Frances says. "She's certainly a prima donna and loved playing to a crowd.

But her owners did notice that she always enjoyed a deep male voice: "She loves children but she always reacted when a man talked to her. She's a dreadful flirt actually." Winnie was so named because her pen was positioned under Winston Churchill's statue in central London. She always had two people with her, 24 hours a day, which took a lot of organising and farmers came from all over the country to help out.

So when Margaret Beckett accused her during Question Time in the House of Commons of doing shifts with look-alike pigs, her owners were understandably put out. But even Frances hadn't envisaged how much of a hit Winnie, a Large White breed, would prove to be. The media loved her and she soon became a household name. So when the London mayoral election arrived, she seemed a perfect candidate. A couple of anonymous celebrities helped raise the 10,000 deposit for her campaign and she soon had a Ten Oink Plan drawn up and was being paraded around London in the Winnie-mobile, pulled behind a Robin Reliant.

Sadly, when the day came to register herself, Winnie was turned away because she was not human, but Richard Slade still wonders if she was partly responsible for some of the many 'spoiled' voting slips that dogged the election.

Winnie returned to the square and was only moved on a couple of weeks ago when an anti-capitalism demonstration ripped through the centre of London. Since then she has been recuperating and dieting at Court Farm, Chipping Norton, having reached up to 40 stone during her vigil thanks to the huge amount of food she was given by well-wishers, tourists and MPs.

Such was her fame that by the end of her stint she had become a tourist attraction herself with taxi drivers pointing her out on tours of the capital.

And since her vigil began the government has pumped 26 million back into the pig industry, and the Buy British Pork campaign has really taken off.

As for her future Winnie, now 18-months-old, will be making trips back to Parliament Square to continue to support the pig farmers, as well as making a variety of public appearances up and down the country. Unfortunately her 'humanisation' means that she will not be able to mix with other pigs again because they sense she is an outsider.

"Pigs are strange like that and they attack any pig that isn't one of them. It would be too dangerous to try to resettle her," Frances says.

But she is certainly not lonely, entertaining the well-wishers that drop-in to see her, and enjoys farm life.

"She is like a naughty child and is very nosy. She always wants to know what's going on," Frances says.

Richard adds: "When I was mending a water pipe this week I was trying to pick it up off the floor and couldn't until I realised Winnie was pulling the other end. She loves joining in.

"She watched me throwing sticks to the dogs and now she'll fetch anything you throw at her and bring it back."

It really is a pig's life.