Ann Widdecombe

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Ann Noreen Widdecombe (born October 4, 1947, in Bath, Somerset) is a British Conservative Party politician. She is the Member of Parliament for Maidstone and The Weald, a Privy Counsellor, and an outspoken supporter of traditional family values. She holds Honours degrees in Latin (BA University of Birmingham) and in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (MA Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford).

From 1976 to 1978, Widdecombe was a Runnymede District Councillor. She contested the seat of Burnley in 1979, and then Plymouth Devonport in 1983 against David Owen. She was first elected to the Houses of Parliament in the 1987 UK general election as member for the constituency of Maidstone (which became Maidstone and The Weald in 1997).

She became the Home Office Minister in Charge of Prisons in John Major's government and in that role visited every single prison. After the fall of the Conservative government to Labour in 1997 she served as shadow Health Secretary and later shadow Home Secretary under William Hague, but has since retired to the backbenches.

When the voters of Eastbourne returned a Liberal Democrat candidate, in the by-election caused by the assassination of Ian Gow, she told them "the IRA would be toasting their success".

She is famous for her claim of celibacy and her outspoken conservatism, and her views concerning abortion and recreational drugs, which some consider to be antiquated. She made headlines for her policy of applying the standards for handcuffing prisoners in transit to pregnant women, even on visits to hospitals. She claimed that this was necessary because of the risk of their absconding. Along with John Gummer MP and approximately 400 Anglican priests, she converted to Roman Catholicism in 1993, in the wake of the decision to ordain women into the Church of England. She had been educated at a Roman Catholic convent school in Bath, La Sainte Union, despite the fact that her family were not Roman Catholics, because her parents wanted to ensure that she received a good education in a single-sex school.

During the Conservative leadership election that picked William Hague she spoke against Michael Howard, under whom she had served when he was Home Secretary. She remarked "there is something of the night about him" and it is for this remark she is probably most (in)famous. It was considered to be extremely damaging, and Howard came last in that 1997 poll. However, he went on to become party leader in 2003 and some of Howard's more cunning supporters at that time claimed she had meant "there is something of the knight about him".

She scored an own goal in calling for a zero tolerance policy of prosecution for users of cannabis in her speech at the 2000 Conservative conference, which was well-received by rank-and-file Conservative delegates. However, she alleges that someone connected with Francis Maude promptly contacted journalists to alert them that fellow Conservative cabinet members were prepared to come out and indicate something of ambivalence towards their own past experiences with this drug.

During the 2001 Conservative leadership election, after the resignation of William Hague in the wake of the 2001 UK general election, she could not find sufficient Conservative MPs to support her as a leadership candidate. She supported the unsuccessful leadership campaign of Ken Clarke, and afterwards refused to serve in a Duncan Smith cabinet.

It is alleged that in preparation for that contest she began the process of softening her image and raising her political profile, but that process appears to be continuing today despite the subsequent selection of Iain Duncan Smith as the Conservative party leader. Her fellow Conservative MPs and political opponents have been cruel at times about her appearance, dubbing her "Doris Karloff" in reference to horror film actor Boris Karloff. In 2003, together with another Roman Catholic M.P. Edward Leigh, she proposed an amendment opposing repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act, which banned the promotion of homosexuality. She is a committed animal lover and one of the few Conservative MPs to consistently vote in favour of the ban on fox hunting.

As a strong, forceful, and clever woman, Widdecombe is arguably a peculiar English sex symbol, and her admirers include Bob Geldof and Eddie Izzard. During the 2001 UK general election, I Love Ann Widdecombe underwear was the top-selling item at Politico's Bookstore, a London shop devoted to political merchandise.

Her non-political accomplishments include being a popular novelist. In March of 2004 she briefly became the Guardian newspaper's agony aunt, introduced with an Emma Brockes interview [1]. In 2002, she took part in the ITV programme Celebrity Fit Club. In 2005 BBC Two showed six episodes of The Widdecombe Project, an agony aunt television program. In 2005 she also appeared in Celebrity Fit Club but this time as a panel member dispensing wisdom and advice to the celebrities taking part.

She has never married and lives with her widowed mother in Newington, London.

In late 2005, she announced her intention to stand down as Member of Parliament for Maidstone and The Weald at the next General Election. In the leadership election, she initally supported Ken Clarke again. Once he was eliminated, she turned support towards Liam Fox. Following Fox's subsequent elimination, she took time to reflect before finally declaring for David Davis. It is notable that she expressed reservations over the eventual winner David Cameron, feeling that he did not have a proven track record like the other candidates for leadership.

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Bibliography

An Act of Peace by Ann Widdecombe (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005) ISBN 0297829580
An Act of Treachery by Ann Widdecombe (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002) ISBN 0297645730
The Clematis Tree by Ann Widdecombe (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000) ISBN 0297645722
Ann Widdecombe: Right from the Beginning by Nicholas Kochan (Politico's Publishing, 2000) ISBN 1902301552
Inspired and Outspoken: The Collected Speeches of Ann Widdecombe edited by John Simmons (Politico's Publishing, 1999) ISBN 1902301226