Right-wing British politician Ann Widdecombe has died at the age of 78. The death of the former Conservative MP, television personality and Reform UK spokesperson was announced by her management company on Friday.
Widdecombe became a household name through her career as a Conservative politician, where she was unafraid to voice her traditional views on moral issues. She later found a new audience as a contestant on the popular BBC reality show Strictly Come Dancing.
Kemi Badenoch paid tribute to Widdecombe as a "formidable politician" in a statement on social media.
"My deepest condolences and those of the Conservative Party to the family and friends of Ann Widdecombe. Always true to herself, her politics were strongly guided by her faith and her values," she wrote.
Nigel Farage said Widdecombe would be "missed by us all" in a post on social media.
"When Ann Widdecombe decided to stand for The Brexit Party in the snap 2019 European Elections, it was a big moment and huge boost. The voters loved her," he added.
A prominent Eurosceptic and Vote Leave campaigner, Widdecombe joined Farage's right-wing populist party, Reform UK, in 2023 to serve as its immigration and justice spokesperson. She also campaigned for the party's candidates during the U.K.'s 2024 general election.
Widdecombe was outspoken in defending her traditional views. During her parliamentary career, she opposed abortion and the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights. As Shadow Home Secretary between 1999 and 2001, she advocated a "zero tolerance" approach to illegal drugs.
In 1996, while serving as prisons minister in the Conservative government of John Major, she defended a policy of shackling pregnant inmates to their hospital beds.
After standing down as MP for Maidstone in south-east England in 2010, Widdecombe reinvented herself as a television personality through her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing. Despite consistently low scores from the judges, she was voted through by the public to the quarter-finals.
She was the runner-up in the 2018 series of Celebrity Big Brother, losing to Australian drag queen Courtney Act, who repeatedly challenged Widdecombe on her views on LGBTQ+ rights during the programme.
Widdecombe's Christian faith was central to her life. She converted to Roman Catholicism in 1993 after the Church of England decided to ordain women as priests.
She never married and said she was "proud" to call herself a spinster, professing no interest in sex.
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