My memories of Ann Widdecombe

 By Neil Lock, Campaign Manager, Reform UK Godalming and Ash Branch

(10^th July, 2026)

I heard today that Ann Widdecombe had died. Then, a few hours later, that there are serious questions about how she died, and the police are looking into the matter.

I met Ann face-to-face only once, though I did manage to spend quite a bit of time with her. It was on Friday, June 28^th, 2024. We had invited Ann to come down to our constituency of Godalming and Ash, to do what she could to help us break the Tory and Lib Dem stranglehold in our area. She obliged, then spoke at a joint gathering with Guildford constituency at the Mandolay hotel.

An unpleasant event happened when we tried to canvass customers at our local Waitrose, which I reported here: https://libertarianism.uk/2024/06/29/someone-is-very-worried-about-reform/. I was standing next to Ann at the back of our group when this happened, and when I looked across at her, she was laughing! She obviously understood the dynamics of the situation. Our enemies were making laughing-stocks of themselves!

Later in the evening, after she had spoken (and it was good), a small group of us remained behind for a final beer. Ann relaxed, ceased to be a politician, and became simply a human being among friends. I was very glad to be included among her friends.

That was my one opportunity to chat directly with Ann. But I had the privilege to be within about six feet of her on an earlier occasion, at a Brexit party meeting in Maidstone – her former constituency – in 2019. Due to a fortunate combination of circumstances, I managed to get a prime seat in the second row. Right next to the security man, whose job was to stop anyone obstructing the speakers as they went up and down the aisle.

Ann was “possessed” that night in Maidstone. It was the most emotionally charged speech I have ever heard, and she had to deliver it quickly because she had to go to London for a broadcast interview. If I say she got a standing ovation, I understate my case.

But for me, the best thing Ann ever did, she did on 31^st October 2008. She voted against the Climate Change Bill! She was one of the Famous Five, who went into the “Nay” lobby to oppose the destruction of our entire civilization by a pack of lying wolves.

I am agnostic in religion, so I won’t say anything about where she might, or might not, be now. But we human beings must do all we can to preserve her memory.