Ann Widdecombe’s life of quiet and conviction

Ann Widdecombe greets me from the warmth of her moorland home.Her front room overlooks a large garden with a pond surrounded by gnomes, an anomaly that makes me chuckle.

Tiny, sprightly, and with a commanding voice as famous as her demeanour, the gnomes throw a curveball, and one I can’t help asking about.

“We get the gnomes from the gnome shop - Pixieland - at Dartmeet, and I get one a year when I take visitors there.The children take great delight in choosing one and putting it beside the lily pond,” she says with an immediate nod to her love of Dartmoor.

Despite her larger-than-life political persona, it’s clear that Widdecombe has a playful side, one that finds joy in the simple things.

Gnomes aside, Widdecombe’s presence demands attention by her sheer force of character.

As we sit in her sitting room, carpeted in the brightest red I’ve ever seen, she answers my questions with the openness and generosity of a true no-nonsense professional.

Born in Bath in 1947, Widdecombe read Latin at Birmingham University, followed by PPE at Oxford.She was elected as the Conservative MP for Maidstone in 1987, holding various positions in government between 1990 and 1995 before becoming a Minister of State at the Home Office in 1995 and served continuously from 1987 until 2010.

Today, Ann is a staunch part of Reform UK.

In 2023, she began serving as its Immigration and Justice spokesperson and remains in the public eye, appearing on the Jeremy Vine Show once a fortnight and GB News twice a week.

Public service - at least until the next general election - is still very much her modus operandi.But after decades with her head above the parapet as an outspoken and relentless politician, she has traded the hustle and bustle of city life for the tranquillity of Dartmoor.

"I bought the house in 2008, but I didn’t retire until 2010, so between then, I was only coming down every few weeks,” Widdecombe recounts.

"I wanted something that is reasonably isolated, and the outskirts of Haytor are ideal.There is nothing in Haytor except a pub, The Rock Inn, and there’s no place better. And there’s a post box. That’s it, and that’s what I wanted.”

And friends, I venture?

"My standard reply to that is: what do I need friends for? I came here for the peace and quiet.I know my neighbours, but if I want to see my friends, I go to London. When you’re my age, your friends are scattered all over, and my friends visit here, especially as I have a swimming pool,” she says.

Widdecombe’s relationship with Dartmoor began long before she moved there.

“My mother was born in Plymouth, my father in Saltash, and my Westcountry connections go back to 1715.

“I remember walking with my father once out to Cranmere Pool when I was about 12, and I think that’s what first gave me a love of walking on Dartmoor.

"I like being alone because I prefer my own pace, and I can stop and go on when I want to. I enjoy the circular walk that goes from Haytor to Bonehill, then to Hound Tor, and back to Haytor with striking tors and historic features. You can walk down to the Haytor Granite Tramway and on to the river before you ascend again. I don’t walk every day, and I don’t often go out in the rain, but I walk a couple of times a week.”

Her political career, of course, remains a key part of her identity.

A woman never swayed by popular public opinion, in 2019, she left the Conservative Party, driven primarily by her dissatisfaction with its handling of Brexit.

She speaks with matter-of-fact frankness. She has openly criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership and policies.

“But we have another four and a half years of this. A lot of people say they [the Labour Party] won’t last, but they have a majority that won’t get them a vote of no confidence. God knows what the country will be like at the end of it.

“Illegal immigration is a massive concern, and the Labour Party has no plans to stop it. They ditched the only deterrent, which was Rwanda, and they threw that away on principle because it was a Tory measure. It was the only deterrent we had.

"We have huge problems. We have taxes that are too high, which puts businesses off; we’ve clobbered employers with taxes; we have out of control immigration; and we have woke. Reform UK will ditch woke entirely. There are two genders, and that is it.  If a man wants to live as a woman and a woman as a man, that is fine, but you should not have men in women’s changing rooms and vice versa.

“Parties need to regain the trust of voters. They need to do what they say they are going to do and be clear about it. Reform UK is the only party that I can see offering solutions and a Britain that I want to see.

"I want to see proportionality, control of our own borders, control of our own laws, and control of our own trade deals. I want police to actually police criminal behaviour and not thought. I want to see genuine equality. I want black equal to white and white equal to black, men equal to women and women equal to men. That’s the society Reform UK wants to see.

"An inquiry in 2023 found that the Royal Air Force engaged in unlawful positive discrimination against white men during recruitment efforts between 2020 and 2021. That’s what we need to stop.”

But her political stance and forthrightness are tempered with a twinkle in her eye, and it’s little wonder that she won over the hearts of the public during her stint on Strictly Come Dancing.

Her transition from politics to the public stage was as unexpected as it was entertaining.

The nation watched, slack-jawed, as Widdecombe took to the ballroom.

“Anton [Du Beke] realised in the first half-hour that I couldn’t dance, but he wasn’t fixed on getting the glitter ball, so we were ideally matched. I really couldn’t dance, and I am tone deaf too, but we decided to have fun,” she says, laughing.

"But the idea of a politician having fun seemed to baffle people. Why shouldn’t we?” Her less-than-graceful moves became iconic.

Then there was Big Brother, an experience she describes as better than she expected.

“My agent persuaded me to do it. It was very different that year, celebrating one hundred years of women’s suffrage with people like Rachel Johnson, and I was runner-up.”

She has also starred in pantomime including the Empress of China in Aladdin and the Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - but now life is more peaceful in Dartmoor, with a fortnightly trip to London and her GB News stint done via Zoom.

She continues to write and has a new Substack with her political thoughts of the day, grateful that her extensive home, huge gardens, and proximity to Dartmoor give her the quietness she strives for.

“You get out on the moors, and you forget everything else. I love Dartmoor. It’s wild, and I am very glad it’s not as popular as some other places, as it is not overrun. In the winter, it’s bleak and dramatic, and you can walk for miles without seeing another person. In spring and summer, there’s the gorse, the heather, and so many flowers. You see so many different things.”

Years ago, in 2012, she did a programme for the BBC called Night Hags and Hell Hounds about the covens, myths, and stone circles of Dartmoor.

"It was a wonderful programme to do,” she says.

And indeed it is a wonderful programme to listen to, as she describes the moorland, and takes a look at the legend of a place she calls extraordinary. Sabine Baring Gould, Beatrice Chase, Kitty Jay, The Hairy Hand and the Hound of the Baskervilles are just a handful of people, places and legends she talks about.

It’s well worth a listen as you get to know better her unerring love for the moorland she calls her home.

Listen to Night Hags and Hell Hounds at bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b01kjs14 Read Widdy on Wednesday and Weekend Widdy at substack.com/@therthonannwiddecombe