Political heavyweight Ann Widdecombe sadly passed away on Thursday at the age of 78, with disturbing news reaching us this afternoon that a man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
The Somerset native enjoyed a long political career that began in 1974 as a personal assistant to Tory MP Michael Ancram. After a brief stint as a district councillor in Surrey, she stood as an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate in the 1979 and 1983 general elections, before winning the Maidstone constituency at the 1987 general elections. She represented that seat for the next 23 years, up until her 'retirement' from politics in 2010, having served in the Major government and in the shadow cabinet of William Hague.
She did not serve in the shadow cabinet of Michael Howard, which is perhaps understandable as she was responsible for the quote that led to caricatures of him as sinister and vampiric. In 1997 she famously said of Howard: "There is something of the night about him".
She remained a member of the Conservative party until 2019, when - having become disillusioned with the Brexit impasse - she joined the Brexit Party and was elected to the European Parliement in 2019. She later became Reform UK's spokesperson on immigration and justice.
A fiercely forthright conservative voice and a devout Christian, the loss of Ann Widdecombe is a loss to the world of politics. God bless her.
The left have distinguished themselves with torrents of hate in the wake of her death. Peter Tatchell, tweeted that she was a bigot who hated gay people. He mentioned her death, then bizarrely, claimed that he had tweeted his comments before the news of her death had been released, he must have some supernatural powers of seeing into the future.
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