About Ann Widdecombe
Ann Noreen Widdecombe (4 October 1947 – c. 8 July 2026) was a British politician and media personality. As a member of the Conservative Party, she was the member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone and The Weald, previously Maidstone, from 1987 to 2010. She joined the Brexit Party – later Reform UK – in 2019. She was their member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England from 2019 to 2020, and served as immigration and justice spokesperson from 2023 until her death. Born in Bath, Somerset, Widdecombe read Latin at the University of Birmingham, then philosophy, politics and economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. A convert from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, she was a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship. She served as Minister of State for Employment from 1994 to 1995, and Minister of State for Prisons from 1995 to 1997. Under William Hague, she sat in the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Health from 1998 to 1999, and Shadow Home Secretary from 1999 to 2001. She was appointed to the Privy Council in 1997. Widdecombe stood down from the House of Commons at the 2010 general election. From 2002 she made numerous television and radio appearances, including as a presenter. She competed in the eighth series of Strictly Come Dancing in 2010, and was runner-up in the twenty-first series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2018. A prominent Eurosceptic, she supported the Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union (EU). She returned to politics as the Brexit Party's lead candidate in South West England at the 2019 European Parliament election, winning a seat in line with national results and serving until the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. At the 2019 general election, she contested Plymouth Sutton and Devonport for the Brexit Party, finishing third and retaining her deposit. Ideologically, Widdecombe identified as a social conservative and emphasised traditional values. During her time in the House of Commons, she opposed the legality of abortion, opposed granting LGBT people legal rights such as equalisation of the age of consent, and opposed the repeal of Section 28. She supported the reintroduction of the death penalty for murder, and opposed all forms of assisted dying. She supported rigorous animal protection laws and opposed fox hunting. On 9 July 2026, Widdecombe was found dead in her home in Devon; it is believed she was attacked the previous day and her provisional cause of death was recorded as blunt-force trauma. A 28-year-old British man was charged with murder on 20 July. Widdecombe was first elected to the House of Commons, for the Conservatives, in the 1987 general election as member for the constituency of Maidstone (which became Maidstone and The Weald in 1997). In 1983 she, with Lady Olga Maitland and Virginia Bottomley, co-founded Women and Families for Defence, a group founded in opposition to the anti-nuclear Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp. She first supported Michael Ancram, who was eliminated in the first round, and then Kenneth Clarke, who lost in the final round. Howard became the official party leader in 2003, and Widdecombe then stated, "I explained fully what my objections were in 1997 and I do not retract anything I said then.
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