Ann Widdecombe: uncompromising politician who embraced TV fame

Former Tory minister, who later joined Reform UK and became an unlikely celebrity, was found dead on Thursday

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.

“This is a very decisive man,” Widdecombe told the interviewer , speaking with the same forthright conviction that had defined her controversial political career and more eccentric parliamentary afterlife.

Widdecombe, formerly a Conservative, joined the Brexit party – which later became Reform UK – in 2019 and Farage, she said, had shown “the sort of decision taking that is needed in the leader of the country”.

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 .

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.

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.

Her extraordinary appearances on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 – during which she was likened by the judges to the Ark Royal, a Dalek in drag, Vera Duckworth’s grandmother, haemorrhoids and a lame canary – won her a new and unexpected fanbase.

She had signed up for the programme months after leaving parliament because, she later said: “I’m having fun … I’m retired, remember? Retired? And I’m having huge fun.”

Widdecombe had specified to the producers that she would not do anything “immodest or suggestive”, but was more than happy to look ridiculous – “galumphing like an elephant”, 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 : “I wouldn’t call that dancing, dear.”

In another interview , she said: “I loved the fact that there was no responsibility. For years everything I’d done was going to affect people. With Strictly … it couldn’t affect anything.

“If I fell down in a heap on the floor, nobody suffered. People said: ‘Is this dignified?’ I said: ‘No, why must it be? I am not an MP.’”

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. “It’s down to them, they had a choice ,” said Widdecombe.

Throughout her life she remained staunchly opposed to abortion and resisted any move to liberalise LGBTQ+ rights – she was highly critical of gay marriage, voiced support for “gay cure” conversion therapists and opposed same-sex couples on Strictly, saying of boxer Nicola Adams’s pairing with a female dancer: “I don’t think it is what viewers of Strictly, especially families, are looking for.”

One of Widdecombe’s Strictly co-stars, Anton Du Beke, said he was “devastated” by the news of her death. The pair were partnered together on the show, and in a video on X – shared before the news that a murder investigation was under way – he said: “I had the most brilliant time with Ann on Strictly Come Dancing . She became a real friend. She was fun. She was upbeat. She was positive. She was supportive. We had an incredible time together and we stayed firm friends.

“My thoughts go out to all of her nearest and dearest and all her family. This is a sad day and I’m devastated by the news of Ann’s passing, but I shall remember her fondly, and miss her.”

Another friend, the broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, described her as a “curious mix of Danny DeVito and Margaret Rutherford”.

Her reputation as a straight-talker – and firm hardliner – had been earned in parliament, most famously when in 1997 she told a journalist her Conservative colleague and former ministerial boss Michael Howard had “something of the night” about him. That has been credited with sinking his hopes of taking the Conservative leadership (though he did so six years later).

The previous year, as prisons minister, she had provoked fury by defending the government’s policy of handcuffing pregnant prisoners during antenatal appointments, saying: “Some MPs may like to think that a pregnant woman would not or could not escape. Unfortunately this is not true.” (She did say the shackles could be unlocked if the women went into labour.)

She had also proposed a mandatory £100 fine for possession of even the smallest quantity of soft drugs, but was forced to back down after criticism from the police and parliamentary colleagues.

As her media career faded in retirement, Widdecombe returned to a more active political role in 2019 when she was expelled by the Conservatives for campaigning for Farage’s then Brexit party – she was later elected to the European parliament, although she would stay only seven months.

On Friday, the former prime minister Boris Johnson described her as “a heroic Brexiteer and a great speaker who could move Tory audiences to such ecstasy that she was a very hard act to follow”.

She joined Reform in 2023 as its immigration and justice spokesperson, remaining an uncompromising public voice until her death.