Ann Widdecombe, the indomitable former Conservative MP, Brexit Party MEP, and Strictly Come Dancing star, has died suddenly at the age of 78. Tributes have poured in from across the political spectrum and showbiz, remembering her as a formidable campaigner, blunt speaker, and national treasure. Her final column for the Daily Express appeared in January 2025, and her last call to the newspaper on Monday, just days before her death, underscored her lifelong commitment to fighting for justice.
Final Campaign: Child Maintenance Scandal
In her last conversation with Express journalist Matt Nixson, Widdecombe spoke passionately about fathers forced into bankruptcy, selling their homes, or facing jail after falling foul of the Child Maintenance Service. She described the statutory body that calculates, collects, and enforces child maintenance payments between separated parents as "a scandal waiting to explode." She insisted it was "even bigger than that of the Post Office and its defective computer programmes: a scandal which also involves suicides, imprisonment and wrecked lives." She argued that fathers were being hounded for erroneous payments or amounts vastly outweighing their actual incomes, with no effective appeal. Her death leaves that campaign unfinished.
From Parliament to Strictly
Born Ann Noreen Widdecombe in Bath on October 4, 1947, she was educated at La Sainte Union Convent, Birmingham University, and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. After working at Unilever and as a senior administrator at the University of London, she became the MP for Maidstone in 1987. She served as a Home Office minister from 1995 to 1997, where she became known for her no-nonsense style and was famously nicknamed "Doris Karloff" after defending the shackling of a pregnant prisoner. She later clashed with Michael Howard, describing him as having "something of the night about him," and with Michael Portillo.
After retiring from Parliament in 2010, she entered Strictly Come Dancing, where her "galumphing" and "elephantine" performances won public votes, and she survived until the round before the semi-finals. She later appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018 and presented a quiz show, Cleverdicks.
Brexit and Reform UK
Widdecombe was a prominent voice in the Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 Brexit referendum. In 2019, she was elected as a Brexit Party MEP alongside Nigel Farage. In 2020, she and Farage memorably flouted European Parliament rules by clapping, cheering, and waving miniature Union flags as they left the chamber. She joined Reform UK in 2023 and spoke at its conference the following year as immigration spokeswoman. She wrote in the Express: "Despite the outcome of the referendum, the outcome of the 2019 election and the supposed exit from the EU in 2020 there is no party of Brexit at Westminster. It is time for something new, time for Reform."
Personal Life and Faith
Widdecombe never married and lived quietly in the West Country with her cats, including Pugwash, Carruthers, and Aloysius, who survives her. She was a devoted aunt to her late brother's children. A convert to Roman Catholicism in the 1990s due to opposition to the ordination of women, she said: "I have never been so spiritually content. I pray morning and night and several times in between." In 2013, she was appointed a Papal Dame for her services to politics and public life.
Harriet Bastide, her PA for 31 years, recalled: "Ann was not my boss, she was a genuine friend to me and my family… she took a wonderfully close interest in my children and I think felt she took on a parental and grandparental role."
Legacy as a Campaigner
Cloud9 Management, which represented Widdecombe for the last decade, said: "Her life and career were driven by her strong Christian values and commitment to public service. She loved the cut and thrust of political debate and, 16 years after leaving Parliament, was still actively campaigning for Reform UK and offering forthright views on the hot topics of the day across numerous radio and television programmes. Ann was a valued patron of many causes, particularly her animal charities."
In her final Express column, she thanked readers for their support and wrote: "Thank you also for your encouragement when, with some controversial topics, I have gone where angels fear to tread!"
