Ann Widdecombe: Brexit-backing, animal-loving Strictly star

Ann Widdecombe, a former Conservative minister who defected to Reform UK, has died aged 78.

She was a household name even before she reinvented herself as a reality TV star, with a high profile spell on Strictly Come Dancing, known for her forthright views and no-nonsense attitude.

A leading figure on the right of British politics for decades, and an enthusiastic early backer of Brexit, she signed up for Strictly in 2010, shortly after leaving Parliament, having represented the Kent constituency of Maidstone for more than 20 years.

Not the most polished dancer – she described her own moves as “galumphing” – she made it to the semi-final before being knocked out.

Her appearance kick started a showbiz career which also saw her take part in Celebrity Big Brother and star in panto as the Evil Queen in Snow White.

Widdecombe was born in Bath, Somerset, in 1947 and went on to study Latin at Birmingham University, then Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University, before being elected as a Runnymede District councillor.

She was a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and held staunchly socially conservative views, opposing abortion, assisted dying and gay rights and supporting the reintroduction of the death penalty.

First elected as an MP in 1987, she faced cruel comments about her appearance, with one newspaper calling her “Doris Karloff” – a reference to an old Hollywood horror star.

But she brushed off the barbs, saying: “I am toothy, dumpy, ugly, overweight, a spinster – what the hell.”

She was also not shy of criticising her Conservative colleagues, famously describing the then home secretary Michael Howard as having “something of the night about him”.

Despite being one of the few female MPs in Parliament in the 1980s, she had little time for feminists, describing them as “whingers”.

Reflecting on her political career in 2016, she said: “I never went round looking for problems so I never found them. The only problem I found as a woman MP were there were insufficient loos.”

A keen-animal lover, she was also one of the few Conservative MPs who opposed fox-hunting.

Her devotion to animals led to her setting up a section of of her website, the Widdyweb, for the pet cats she has lived with, adopting goats and becoming the patron of a donkey sanctuary.