Ann Widdecombe Biography
Ann Widdecombe DSG is a British politician and television presenter. She served as MP for Maidstone and The Weald, as well as the former Maidstone seat, from 1987 to 2010, and as MEP for South West England from 2019 to 2020. She was a member of the Conservative Party until joining the Brexit Party in 2019, which was renamed Reform UK in 2021. She rejoined Reform UK in 2023.
How old is Ann Widdecombe? – Age
She is 76 years old as of 4 October 2023. She was born in 1947 in Bath, United Kingdom. Her real name is Ann Noreen Widdecombe.
Ann Widdecombe Family – Education
Widdecombe is the daughter of Rita Noreen and James Murray Widdecombe, a civil servant with the Ministry of Defence. Widdecombe’s maternal grandfather, James Henry Plummer, was born in 1874 to an English Catholic family in Crosshaven, County Cork, Ireland. She lived a residence in London with her widowed mother, Rita Widdecombe, until Rita died on April 25, 2007, at age 95. She retired to Haytor Vale on Dartmoor in Devon, which she purchased in March 2008. Her brother, Malcolm, an Anglican canon in Bristol, retired in May 2009 and died in October 2010. Her nephew, Roger Widdecombe is an Anglican clergyman.
She attended both the Royal Naval School in Singapore and the La Sainte Union Convent School in Bath. She studied Latin at the University of Birmingham before moving on to Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford to study philosophy, politics, and economics. She served as secretary of the Oxford Union for one term in 1971 before becoming treasurer in 1972. She shared an apartment with Mary Archer, Edwina Currie, and Gyles Brandreth’s wife, Michèle Brown, while attending Oxford. Before joining Parliament, she worked for Unilever and later as an administrator at the University of London.
Is Ann Widdicombe married? – Husband – Children
She has never married or had any children. On BBC Radio 4 in November 2007, she told how a journalist once created a profile of her based on the premise that she had had at least “one sexual relationship,” to which Widdecombe responded, “Be careful, that’s how you get sued.” Widdecombe joked “it’s nobody else’s business” when interviewer Jenni Murray questioned if she had ever had a sexual connection.
Ann Widdecombe Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of $5 million.
Ann Widdecombe Height
She stands at a height of 5 feet 1½ inches (1.56 m).
Ann Widdecombe House
Ann lives in Haytor and on Haytor Rocks, Dartmoor, Devonshire, United Kingdom. When she left Westminster in 2010, she bought her retirement home, which is filled with mementos from her life. She spent three years in Singapore as a child, and this Indian inkwell brings her fond memories.
She departed in 1956, returning once in 1984 and then every five years or so until 2000 to see her Chinese nanny, who was over 100 and still going strong. The inkwell is more beautiful than useful, and Indian superstition states that the elephants must face the door for good luck.
Ann Widdecombe Religious views
Widdecombe became an Anglican in her 30s, following a period as an agnostic after leaving religious school. She converted to Catholicism in 1993, after quitting the Church of England. She threatened to boycott British Airways in October 2006 after the firm suspended a worker for refusing to hide her Christian cross, but the suspension was later lifted.
Widdecombe declined an opportunity to be Britain’s next ambassador to the Holy See in 2010, citing a detached retina as the reason. On January 31, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI appointed her a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in recognition of her contributions to politics and public life.
Ann Widdecombe Strictly Come Dancing
In October 2010, she competed on BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing, partnered by Anton du Beke, and won the hearts of some viewers despite receiving low points from the judges. After nine weeks of routines heavily influenced by comedy, the couple was eliminated in the bottom two. Widdecombe appeared as the Lord Mayoress on Sooty in 2011.
Widdecombe hosted Cleverdicks, a quiz program on Sky Atlantic, for 30 one-hour episodes in 2012. In April 2012, Widdecombe presented Drunk Again: Ann Widdecombe Investigates, an hour-long documentary for BBC Radio 5 Live that examined how the British attitude toward alcohol drinking had changed over the past few years. Widdecombe appeared in a Strictly Come Dancing special for Children in Need’s 2012 fundraiser night. Widdecombe guest-hosted a song about singledom on an edition of BBC’s Songs of Praise on November 4, 2012.
Ann Widdecombe Big Brother
Widdecombe confirmed this in January 2018 on the UK reality television show Big Brother, claiming that she ended the romance to focus on her work. Widdecombe appeared in the twenty-first season of Celebrity Big Brother in January 2018, where she was chastised for her statements about the Harvey Weinstein scandal as well as comments perceived to be anti-LGBT directed at her other housemates, most notably drag queen Courtney Act (Shane Jenek). She finished second in the competition, trailing Jenek.
Ann Widdecombe Books
In 2008, she said that Nigel Lawson’s book An Appeal to Reason had “crystalised” her reservations, and in 2014, she compared Lawson’s struggle in getting the book published to Nazi Germany’s book-burnings. Later in 2008, Widdecombe asserted that the “science of climate change is robustly disputed,” then, in 2009, that “there is no climate change, hasn’t anybody looked out of their window lately?” She was one of five MPs who voted against the Climate Change Act in 2008.
Ann Widdecombe Brexit
She returned to politics in 2019 as a Brexit Party candidate in the European Parliament elections in South West England, which were held on May 23, despite the fact that she had previously voted Conservative in the local elections three weeks prior. She was expelled from the Conservative Party shortly following her declaration. Widdecombe pondered joining the Brexit Party in March 2019, but only joined in May.
Widdecombe stated that her decision to stand stemmed from the government’s failure to complete Britain’s exit from the EU on time. “Both major parties need a seismic shock,” she went on to say, “to see the extent of public disgust.” She eventually earned her seat. Widdecombe joined the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs (LIBE). Widdecombe ran as a candidate for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport in the 2019 UK general election, finishing third but only maintaining her deposit with 5.5% of the vote. Nigel Farage claimed that the Conservative Party informed her that if she resigned as a candidate, she would be included in their Brexit negotiations.