Four days ago, I learned of the death of Ann Widdecombe. I would not have been shocked if she had died naturally (she was 78, after all), but because she was murdered I, like many, was taken aback. We still don’t know the full details of what happened or that of the murderer and his motive. That itself is a concern as already things don’t seem to add up, but that is not why I am writing.

Neither is it to provide an obituary or extol her virtues or foibles of this larger than life character, which have been covered by countless tributes even among those who opposed a lot of what Ann stood for. To get an idea of here many accomplishments and qualities, Wikipedia (see here) does a particularly good job. Rather, I want here to offer my own tribute to a lady who I greatly admired.

A long while, with Ann operating in her hey day as an in and out government minister and when dream teams was something being discussed, I suggested my dream team would be Ann Widdecombe and my own MP, Teddy Taylor, with Ann as Prime Minister, as the sensible one and given Teddy’s more maverick tendencies (sadly, as I now see the power of the Deep State, as later did Ann, I realise as things stood, even then, that would have been an impossible dream).

I give my tribute to a politician with many other strings to her bow because she is one of the very few who I truly admired. She was a woman of principle, putting this ahead of getting on. I still remember, with a smile, her spate with her boss when Home Secretary, Michael Howard, about whom she said had “something of the night about him”.  Yet I detected no rancour or bitterness and said and did what needed saying or doing with wit and humour. This included, out of principle, leaving the Conservative Party and as an ardent Brexiteer joining the Brexit and later the Reform parties.

As a strong Christian, she based her decisions on Christian principles. One was to leave the Anglican church over the last of many wrong things that it had been pushing, in this case the ordination of woman priests, and join the Catholic church. It is one of several things she believed or did, I may have disagreed with. Another was her disdain for Oliver Cromwell. I would have loved to chat with Ann over these matters over a coffee, but it wasn’t to be.

But it could have been. She was a good friend of our other Southend MP, David Amess. It happened when we met up, as we had done on previous occasions and in chatting our conversation turned to Ann, who had a couple of weeks earlier come to Southend to help David in his re-election campaign. I told David how much I admired Ann and would love to meet her. He offered to set me up with a meeting with Ann. Not long after that, he too was tragically murdered.

Without wanting to names drop, I was at another function where our other Southend MP was in attendance along with his wife, who I got talking to. We shared the fact that we liked to watch Strictly Come Dancing, and especially so since Ann was participating, who was probably the worst dancer in the show but was very entertaining and lots of fun. We found out that, notwithstanding, both of us had voted for Ann to stay in the show that led her to a new career.

I want to end by saying there are probably a number of things me and Ann would not have agreed on, but not only is she one of the few politicians I truly admired but she was a rarity even comparing with the constituency I am most familiar with, the Christian one. She was a prophetic voice, to join the unlikely motley band God is raising up, who saw what many failed to see and say what many refused to say, yet with grace. She was undeterred in speaking truth when it was needed and as a result she died a martyr’s death.

In some ways, her passing reminds me of that of her friend, David Amess and more recently, Charlie Kirk, unafraid at sticking her head above the parapet in the cause of truth and righteousness. I hope and pray (and also believe) she will inspire others to do likewise.