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Ann Widdecombe, who once served as a Conservative minister before switching allegiance to Reform UK, has passed away at the age of 78. Known widely long before venturing into reality television, she gained prominence through her outspoken nature and straightforward demeanor. Among her notable public appearances was her stint on Strictly Come Dancing, which she joined in 2010 just after departing from Parliament, where she had represented Maidstone in Kent for over two decades.
Though not celebrated for her grace on the dance floor—she famously described her dancing as “galumphing”—Widdecombe advanced to the semi-final round before elimination. This television exposure launched a subsequent entertainment career that included a role on Celebrity Big Brother and a pantomime appearance as the Evil Queen in a production of Snow White. Broadcaster and longtime friend Gyles Brandreth once described her personality as “a curious mix of Danny DeVito and Margaret Rutherford.”
Born in Bath, Somerset, in 1947, Widdecombe studied Latin at Birmingham University and then pursued Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford. Early in her political journey, she served as a Runnymede District councillor. Throughout her career, she was a prominent figure on the socially conservative wing of the Conservative Party, actively opposing abortion, assisted dying, and gay rights, while advocating for the return of the death penalty. She was also a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship.
Widdecombe’s parliamentary career began in 1987. Despite facing derogatory remarks about her appearance—including a newspaper likening her to “Doris Karloff,” a nod to a classic Hollywood horror actor—she addressed such comments without hesitation, stating, “I am toothy, dumpy, ugly, overweight, a spinster – what the hell.” She did not hesitate to critique her own party colleagues, famously remarking that Michael Howard had “something of the night about him.” Despite being among the minority of female MPs during the 1980s, she expressed little sympathy for feminist activists, dismissing them as “whingers.” Reflecting in 2016 on her time in politics, she noted wryly, “I never went round looking for problems so I never found them. The only problem I found as a woman MP were there were insufficient loos.” She was also an animal lover, opposing fox-hunting and supporting various animal causes, including running a section of her website devoted to her pet cats and serving as patron of a donkey sanctuary.
Three years after entering Parliament, Widdecombe began her ministerial career as a junior social security minister before advancing to the employment portfolio. In 1995, she was appointed prisons minister, during which she became embroiled in controversy for defending the practice of chaining pregnant prisoners to prevent escape. After the Conservative defeat in 1997, she held shadow cabinet positions, serving as shadow health secretary from 1998 to 1999 and as shadow home secretary from 1999 to 2001 under William Hague. When she stepped down from politics in 2010, she expressed disappointment at not being granted a peerage by then-Prime Minister David Cameron.
Beyond politics, Widdecombe was a prolific author, producing four novels and an autobiography. She also made frequent media appearances, including guest hosting the news quiz show Have I Got News for You. In 2013, she received a papal honour, becoming a Dame of the Order of St Gregory in recognition of her political and public service work, especially her opposition to abortion and assisted dying. A convert to Catholicism in the 1990s, she once told The Times, “To have a church which calls a sin a sin and has done with it is a blessed relief.”
Widdecombe returned to political life as a passionate advocate for Brexit, securing a seat as a Brexit Party MEP for South West England during the 2019 European Parliament election. She held this position until the UK formally left the European Union in January 2020. In 2023, she rejoined the party, now renamed Reform UK, taking on the role of immigration and justice spokesperson. She had shared her London home with her widowed mother, Rita, until her mother’s passing in 2007. In a 2010 interview on BBC’s Woman’s Hour, Widdecombe spoke openly about the isolation of being an MP, humorously remarking, “I like my own company very much indeed, just as well because I might be the only one who does.
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