A POLITICIAN has lent her backing to a cosmetic company's new animal rights campaign.

Alex Mayer, MEP for the East of England, joined shoppers and staff on Friday at Body Shop's Braintree Freeport store.

She spoke to store managers and officially backed the company's campaign calling for the United Nations to adopt a convention that will end animal testing for cosmetic products across the world by 2020.

Store manager Leanne Clarke and assistant manager Cerys Ede explained that the shop have already collected hundreds of signatures on a petition in stores in the area since the campaign began two weeks ago.

Cosmetic testing on animals has been banned across Europe since 2003, but there are no laws banning it across 80 percent of the world.

The Body shop want to get 8 million signatures on the petition.

Ms Mayer, who is a member of the cross-party European Animal Welfare Group, said: “Britain is a nation of animal lovers, so I am sure everyone in Braintree will want to get behind this campaign.

“Animal testing on products and ingredients is outdated, cruel and unnecessary but sadly over 500,000 animals are used by the cosmetics industry every year.

"It is time that we stood up for the animals that can’t stand up for themselves and end animal testing for good."

Sign the petition at https://e-activist.com/page/9704/petition/1.