Former Tory minister, who later joined Reform UK and became an unlikely celebrity, was found dead on Thursday<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, shortly after Nigel Farage announced he would stand down from his parliamentary seat in Clacton to trigger a byelection, Ann Widdecombe appeared by video link on Talk TV to praise his decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very decisive man,\u201d Widdecombe told the interviewer, speaking with the same forthright conviction that had defined her controversial political career and more eccentric parliamentary afterlife.<\/p>\n
Widdecombe, formerly a Conservative, joined the Brexit party \u2013 which later became Reform UK \u2013 in 2019 and Farage, she said, had shown \u201cthe sort of decision taking that is needed in the leader of the country\u201d.<\/p>\n
The following morning, the 78-year-old was found dead at her Devon home, having sustained serious injuries. A 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.<\/p>\n
Widdecombe had stepped down from Westminster in 2010 at the age of 62, after 23 years as an MP, seven of them as an uncompromising and often divisive junior minister under John Major.<\/p>\n
But having been passed over for a peerage, she had no interest in a quiet retirement. Widdecombe may have been a devout Catholic with hardline views on morality and law and order, but she did not take herself overly seriously.<\/p>\n
Her extraordinary appearances on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 \u2013 during which she was likened by the judges to the Ark Royal, a Dalek in drag, Vera Duckworth\u2019s grandmother, haemorrhoids and a lame canary \u2013 won her a new and unexpected fanbase.<\/p>\n
She had signed up for the programme months after leaving parliament because, she later said: \u201cI\u2019m having fun \u2026 I\u2019m retired, remember? Retired? And I\u2019m having huge fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Widdecombe had specified to the producers that she would not do anything \u201cimmodest or suggestive\u201d, but was more than happy to look ridiculous \u2013 \u201cgalumphing like an elephant\u201d, as she put it. Asked some years later if she had any dancing tips for her fellow politician-turned-contestant Ed Balls, she told the Guardian: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t call that dancing, dear.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another interview, she said: \u201cI loved the fact that there was no responsibility. For years everything I\u2019d done was going to affect people. With Strictly \u2026 it couldn\u2019t affect anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I fell down in a heap on the floor, nobody suffered. People said: \u2018Is this dignified?\u2019 I said: \u2018No, why must it be? I am not an MP.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
There were plenty of other media appearances, including as an agony aunt on Celebrity Fit Club (after briefly writing an agony column for the Guardian), two turns hosting Have I Got News For You, and cameo appearances on Sooty and Doctor Who. But for all her entertaining gameness and very British eccentricity, Widdecombe remained unyielding in her personal morality. An appearance in 2018 on Celebrity Big Brother saw Widdecombe accused of victim-blaming when a discussion turned to the victims of Harvey Weinstein. \u201cIt\u2019s down to them, they had a choice,\u201d said Widdecombe.<\/p>\n
Throughout her life she remained staunchly opposed to abortion and resisted any move to liberalise LGBTQ+ rights \u2013 she was highly critical of gay marriage, voiced support for \u201cgay cure\u201d conversion therapists and opposed same-sex couples on Strictly, saying of boxer Nicola Adams\u2019s pairing with a female dancer: \u201cI don\u2019t think it is what viewers of Strictly, especially families, are looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
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