Esther Rantzen is launching a new telephone counselling service for vulnerable elderly people.

Writing about her plans in the Daily Mail, the television presenter and one-time parliamentary candidate explained that she wanted the new charity to combat loneliness and the feeling “that if you ceased to exist no one would miss you”.

She said the new telephone befriending service would be called “The Silver Line” and would be a point for older people to gain information, friendship and help with serious problems, as well as advice about organisations to contact as the next step.

It comes a quarter of a century after she established Childline, launched in the wake of a BBC programme about child abuse.

Ms Rantzen, 71, said: “Loneliness particularly strikes older people who are used to having a purpose in life, to being needed.

“Gradually, the community they used to belong to has shrunk away to nothing; children have moved out, bereavement or divorce means their partners have gone ” .