Mel B has claimed that she should no longer be called “Scary Spice” because people find it offensive.

The 48-year-old singer, who rose to fame in the 1990s as one fifth of the hit girl group Spice Girls, was given her nickname by a journalist when the band first appeared on the scene and has stuck with it ever since.

Speaking in a new interview on Elizabeth Day’s podcast How To Fail about how she feels about being known as Scary Spice three decades later, the wannabe hitmaker replied: “I think we’re a bit too politically correct now. I’ve become more mellow in the last few years.” “Before, if you were interviewing me, I would have said, ‘Show me your questions.’ I would have been the protector of the group that came in there and said, ‘Hold on a minute.'” “That can be seen as maybe a bit too Nordic or maybe a bit too feisty or scary, so I gave myself that name – and I love it.”

The mother of two said her nickname came from the “simple fact” that she was “a bit scary” with her “larger-than-life hair”.

She added: “That’s just me. But nowadays, someone would have been offended by it. But I’m not offended.”

“Whether you’re black, white or mixed, there’s a little bit of fear in all of us.”

She continued: “And I just want to clarify that these names were given to us by some lazy journalist from some tiny pop magazine, and he didn’t bother to remember our full names.

“So he said this one looks a little creepy because she’s already stolen my notes and has this crazy leopard print hair and nails, so he just gave us a name like that.

“We all thought, ‘God, I really like my name.'”

Despite the passing years, Mel B insists that they are still fundamentally the same.

“It’s funny because Emma still loves pink – and if it were up to her, she would put her hair in a ponytail,” she mused.

“Mel C can never be taken out of her tracksuit and she always wears a ponytail.

“Victoria is very sleek and elegant. Geri, she’s had a bit of a change but underneath she’s still the feisty Union Jack girl.

“We’re all exactly the same, which is nice considering we started at 17, 18, 19 and are now 48, 49, 50.”