Ann Widdecombe

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Ann Widdecombe (2006)

Ann Noreen Widdecombe (born October 4, 1947 in Bath , Somerset , England ) is a British politician , formerly a member of the Conservative Party , a member of the Brexit Party since 2019 and an author .

Life

After attending a denominational school , she studied at the University of Birmingham and the University of Oxford before starting her professional career at Unilever in 1973 . She then worked as an administrator at the University of London between 1975 and 1987 .

After two unsuccessful candidates was as a candidate of the Conservative Party in the general election in 1987 for the first time a member of the lower house ( House of Commons ) selected. There she represented the constituency of Maidstone until 1997 and then the constituency of Maidstone and The Weald until the 2010 general election .

In 1990 she took over a junior ministerial post in the British government formed by Prime Minister John Major for the first time and was initially Parliamentary Undersecretary in the Ministry of Social Security until 1993 . She then became Parliamentary Undersecretary in the Ministry of Employment, before becoming Minister of State in the Ministry of Employment in 1994. After that Ann Widdecombe from 1995 to 1997 was Minister of State for Prisons in the Ministry of Interior ( Home Office ) here and was due to their extremely conservative views of some politicians in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher seen.

In the devastating electoral defeat of the conservative Tories in the general election in 1997 , she was able to defend her mandate in the lower house and was then appointed "health minister " in the shadow cabinet of William Hague , before she was shadow "interior minister" from 1999 to 2001.

2001 she turned down a candidacy to succeed Hague as chairwoman of the Conservative Party , so that instead Iain Duncan Smith on September 13, 2001 was the new party chairman.

In addition to her political career, Ann Widdecombe was also active as a writer and, in addition to Inspired and Outspoken (1999), also published the novels The Clematis Tree (2000), An Act of Treachery (2002), Father Figure (2005) and An Act of Peace (2005) ). She has also worked for television several times, including as a temporary presenter on the panel show Have I Got News for You and as a participant in Strictly Come Dancing . In 2007 she made a guest appearance on the television series Dr. Who .

Widdecombe, who left the Church of England in 1993 and joined the Roman Catholic Church , also advocates the Christian faith in public. Among other things, she worked on television documentaries about Christianity and the Bible and, together with Archbishop John Onaiyekan, defended the Catholic Church against Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens as part of an Intelligence Squared debate .

In April 2019, Widdecombe announced her return to active politics and announced that she would run for the Brexit Party in the upcoming EU election . She was one of 29 members of the Brexit Party in the European Parliament .

Her maiden speech in the European Parliament caused criticism and ridicule, as she put Brexit on a par with the revolt of slaves against their masters and the liberation of colonies.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ann Widdecombe at IMDb , accessed March 17, 2011.
  2. ^ The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world. Intelligence² debate. Intelligence 2 Ltd, October 19, 2009, archived from the original on June 26, 2010 ; accessed on March 17, 2011 (English).
  3. ↑ Ann Widdecombe: Former Tory MP to stand for Brexit Party. BBC , April 24, 2019, accessed on the same day.
  4. ↑ Ann Widdecombe: Profile of Members of the European Parliament, July 4, 2019, accessed on the same day.
  5. ↑ Daniel Boffey: Ann Widdecombe likens United Kingdom and Gibraltar European Union membership referendum to emancipation of slaves. In: theguardian.com . July 4, 2019, accessed July 5, 2019 .

Web links and sources

personal data
SURNAME Widdecombe, Ann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Widdecombe, Ann Noreen (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Conservative Party politician, Member of the House of Commons and writer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th October 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Bath , Somerset , England