LOVE or hate her, you can’t ignore her.

It seems the delightful Katie Hopkins is never far from our screens or headlines.

Whether she’s calling migrants “cockroaches”, claiming people with dementia would be better off dead or gaining and losing three stone to prove overweight people are lazy, the selfstyled “rent-a-gob” seems to revel in being controversial.

It will come as no surprise to hear I’m not a great fan of the woman.

But did I add my name to the 300,000 others who signed the petition to get her fired from The Sun? Certainly not.

Not only because I believe free speech works both ways, but also because I recognise her for what she is – a character.

Just like Jeremy Clarkson – another loud mouth I’m on record as not being terribly fond of – Mrs Hopkins has realised she can get her face on telly and in the papers by saying something controversial about an issue in the news.

And regardless of whether or not you agree with that approach, she’s very, very good at it.

Barely a news story goes by without the Celebrity Big Brother runner-up popping up on Good Morning Britain or Loose Women to say something carefully tailored to wind up as many viewers as possible.

She probably does believe the majority of what she says, but it’s hard not to think at least some of it is deliberately exaggerated.

Succeeding in getting her fired from The Sun – which won’t happen anyway – would only play perfectly into her hands.

She would be able to portray herself as a martyr, silenced by evil forces fighting to stifle free speech.

And she wouldn’t be gone for long.

That’s just the sort of thing the Daily Mail or the Daily Express would lap up.

The best way to approach Mrs Hopkins is simply to stop taking her seriously.

Treat her with the disdain she deserves and eventually she’ll fade into obscurity, along with Craig David and everyone who’s ever been on Big Brother.

Let’s not forget this is a woman who said giving children a geographical name, such as Dakota or Chelsea, was a sign of being lower-class and when it was pointed out she named her daughter India, claimed it wasn’t after the country.

Obviously.