Ann Widdecombe: a politician unlike any other
Straight talking MP was a one-off
Few politicians are capable of earning support from across the political spectrum but the former Maidstone MP Ann Widdecombe, brutally killed last week was one of them.
Principled, outspoken, uncompromising - she walked the walk while others just talked the talk.
At a time when the reputation of politicians and politics has never been lower, she was one of the few whose image did not suffer although it would be wrong to say she was right in every case.
Nevertheless, if you could persuade her to get on side she would go out of her way to help in anyway she could; countless constituents testified to her ability to get things done when others may have fallen by the way side.
Indeed, it was the one defining feature throughout her career that constituents have spoken of in the aftermath of her truly dreadful death.
Many of those constituents attested to her plain-speaking, describing someone who did not suffer fools gladly. Her ‘straight-talking, tell it like is’ approach to politics appealed to voters who often said they would back her but not her party.
She sometimes could sound strident but voters tended to forgive her that and she carried an immensely impressive following in a political career that spanned several decades and saw her serve in government - controversially so when a policy of chaining pregnant prisoners to trolleys created a row. Characteristically, she stood her ground.
She will be remembered too for an infamous falling out with fellow Kent Conservative MP Michael Howard during the leadership battle in 1987.
During an interview, she said that Howard had “something of the night” about him, a devastating critique that more or less holed his campaign beneath the water line.
She retired from frontline politics in 2010 settling in a new home in Devon but the lure of the limelight saw her develop a new but unlikely career as a celebrity, memorably on the hugely popular “Strictly Come Dancing” where she became something of a cult figure.
She also appeared in “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here” - as did Nigel Farage.
But a return to frontline politics came when she accepted an invitation from Nigel Farage to join the Reform Party, heralding a new chapter in her political career.
She joined him travelling around the country to generate support for the new party and spent a further few months as an MEP, relishing a spell as a leading spokesman for the party.
However, the recent decision by Nigel Farage to trigger a by-election drew a cautious response, suggesting that it was a huge gamble.
As a journalist covering her constituency, I regularly spoke to Ann on a variety of issues, both local and national. She was a formidable debater and her straight-talking approach could often leave me wrestling with my notepad and pen as she fired off her thoughts in a random fashion that had me struggling to keep up with her rapid-fire delivery.
She sorely tested my shorthand - no bad thing - but there were times when I’d interviewed her and went back to my notebook to discover I’d incomplete sentences - something she always was happy to correct but not without a sense that she felt I’d had my chance and that was it.