One of Britian’s last “principle politicians” has died. Member of Parliament (M.P.) Ann Widdecombe, a convert to Catholicism and a staunch defender of Christian moral principles in the public square, was found murdered in her home on Thursday. Although local Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman said that Widdecombe’s murder was not politically motivated or a terrorist attack, the Catholic politician’s death comes amidst widespread political and social upheaval in Britain, including violence against conservative voices.
Widdecombe’s political career began in the 1980s, when she ran for office and co-founded Women and Families for Defence, an organization advocating nuclear deterrence in opposition to the more progressive nuclear disarmament campaign of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp. At the time an Anglican, after having abandoned agnosticism in her 20s and 30s, Widdecombe was elected to Parliament in 1987.
Nearly five years ago, one of Widdecombe’s colleagues and fellow Catholics, Conservative M.P. Sir David Amess, was murdered by an Islamist.
Throughout the 1990s, Widdecombe served in a host of various cabinet positions under Conservative leader and Prime Minister Sir John Major, rising to prominence as Minister of State for Prisons. Although she herself never became leader of the Conservatives, she played a pivotal role in guiding the party, including effectively torpedoing the leadership campaigns of Michael Howard and Michael Portillo. In 2010, Widdecombe retired from the British Parliament, but was elected as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2019, running on the Brexit Party ticket. Her affiliation with the Brexit Party resulted in her being expelled from the Conservative Party. She later joined the Brexit Party’s successor, Reform U.K., as the party’s immigration and justice spokeswoman.
Following the Church of England’s decision to ordain women as priests, Widdecombe converted to Catholicism. “I left the Church of England because there was a huge bundle of straw. The ordination of women was the last straw, but it was only one of many,” she explained in an interview at the time. “For years I had been disillusioned by the Church of England’s compromising on everything. The Catholic Church doesn’t care if something is unpopular.”
Widdecombe distinguished herself throughout her career as a staunch defender of the dignity of human life, adamantly opposing both abortion and euthanasia. Despite her tenure as shadow health secretary, Widdecombe turned down the position of Health Secretary when the Conservatives regained power, citing her pro-life beliefs and explaining that she could not be responsible for licensing abortionists. The parliamentarian was also an opponent of the LGBT agenda, voting again and again to protect the institution of marriage and publicly declaring, “I do not think that [homosexuality] can be promoted as an equally valid lifestyle to [heterosexual] marriage, but I would say the same about irregular heterosexual arrangements.” She also opposed then-Prime Minister David Cameron’s push to legalize same-sex marriage, insisting that the state’s model of marriage must be “a union that is generally open to procreation.”
Sadly, police found Widdecombe dead in her home in Haytor Vale, Dartmoor, Devon. She had, police reported, sustained “serious injuries” and a murder investigation was launched. One suspect, identified as a 26-year-old white male, was arrested under suspicion, but was released early Saturday morning and was said to be “no longer part of the investigation.” The investigation is still ongoing.
Nearly five years ago, one of Widdecombe’s colleagues and fellow Catholics, Conservative M.P. Sir David Amess, was murdered by an Islamist. Somali man Ali Harbi Ali was arrested and convicted, citing Amess’s support for wars against Islamic regimes as motivation for murdering the mild-mannered Catholic.
Since Amess’s murder in 2021, Britain’s immigration crisis has only worsened, as Widdecombe clearly recognized by joining Reform as an immigration policy spokeswoman. The nation — once home to great saints like Thomas Beckett, Thomas More, and Edmund Campion — has imported hordes of third world refuse from violent regions where anti-Christian sentiment is not only harbored but encouraged. The Rape Gang Inquiry Report recently published by M.P. Rupert Lowe of the Restore Britain Party explicates that Muslim men intentionally target white Christian girls for widespread, systematic rape, gang rape, sex trafficking, torture, and even murder.
In ages past, British Catholics were targeted for persecution by those who oppose the Catholic Church. As godlessness and its ladies-in-waiting — progressivism, feminism, and immigration accelerationism — have increased in power, so also the persecution of Catholics in Britain has increased in scale, intensity, and barbarism. Offer a prayer for the soul of Ann Widdecombe, who no doubt will be welcomed to Heaven by her countrymen and fellow Catholics who have gone before her.
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