STORY
Former Conservative minister, MP and Reform UK campaigner Ann Widdecombe has died at the age of 78, her management has announced. Widdecombe remained active in political campaigning and broadcasting until shortly before her death, more than 16 years after she left the House of Commons.
Cloud9 Management said it was announcing her death with great sadness and offered condolences to her family and friends. Her representatives asked that the family’s wish for privacy should be respected.
Widdecombe served as the Conservative MP for Maidstone from 1987 until boundary changes created the Maidstone and The Weald constituency in 1997. She continued to represent the area until standing down from Parliament at the 2010 general election.
During John Major’s Government, she held ministerial posts in the Department of Social Security and the Home Office, including responsibility for prisons. She later served in the shadow cabinet as shadow health secretary and shadow home secretary.
Widdecombe became known for her uncompromising political style and strongly held socially conservative views, which were closely connected to her Christian faith. Her career also included a prominent dispute with former Conservative leader Michael Howard, whom she famously said had “something of the night” about him.
A committed Eurosceptic, Widdecombe left the Conservatives and joined Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party in 2019. She was elected as a member of the European Parliament for South West England and served until the United Kingdom left the institution in 2020, later continuing her political work with Reform UK.