The latest reality series will allow viewers to select their own nominee for the House of Commons, according to the Sunday Times today.

The ITV show, provisionally titled Vote For Me, will follow a format similar to that of Pop Idol, with regular eliminations and a panel of judges.

The winner will stand in the next parliamentary by-election as an independent.

If the series is successful, then a sequel will seek to find candidates to challenge the likes of Tony Blair, Iain Duncan-Smith and Charles Kennedy in the next general election, the newspaper reports.

Senior ITV executive said he was in "early negotiations" to broadcast the show, and denied he was seeking to bring politics into disrepute. "Politicians are forever demanding that we do more to involve people in politics," he said. "We are all trying to find the grail of an accessible political programme."

Programme creator Stephen Leahy said contestants would have to go through an extensive selection process.

"In the preliminary auditions, candidates will have to make a three-minute presentation to sell themselves and their own manifesto to the panel," he explained. "If they can’t hold the interest of the panel, they simply won’t make the grade."

Vote For Me follows the huge success of an Argentian show called The People's Candidate last winter.