BACKSTAGE PASS: TARA BRADYmeets Ann Widdecombe as she prepares for a turn as diva in 'Strictly Come Dancing: The Live Tour'
THIS MUCH IS certain; the lady’s not for turning. “I get so tired of this ‘for women’ lark,” says the Rt Hon Ann Widdecombe firmly. “I think it’s nonsense and I think it’s whinging. If you’re an MP you’re an MP and it doesn’t matter if you’re male or female, short or tall, thin or fat. The issue is always how you do your job. I would rather have 100 good male MPs than 200 indifferent female MPs.”
Quite. In a topsy-turvy world it’s comforting to find that Widdecombe is precisely what you’d expect: forthright, no-nonsense and very, very amusing. Last year, the former shadow home secretary for the Conservative Party in Britain retired from the frontline after 23 years in the Commons. A born politician, shes been fighting her corner since 1972 when she was elected treasurer of the Oxford Union. She must miss the cut and thrust just a little, surely?
“Not at all,” she insists. “I’m completely switched off; I’m doing other things now. I’m just not interested. It’s really quite grim all across Europe at the moment. I wouldn’t want to be at Westminster now.”
It is certainly a less colourful place without her. Widdecombe first came to prominence as a stern, uncompromising voice for the Tory right. Over the course of her career, she proposed zero-tolerance fines for the possession of cannabis and repeatedly scoffed at legislation intended to tackle climate change. She is proud and happy, she tells me, to stand over her political record.
“I don’t regret anything of substance at all,” she says. “I had views and I spoke those views and I still hold those views.”
Her outspokenness has served her surprisingly well outside of the Commons too. An unlikely celebrity, over the past decade she has become a staple of mainstream television, appearing on Celebrity Fit Club, Dragon's Den, Doctor Whoand Have I Got News For You?Last October, she signed up for Strictly Come Dancingand won over millions of hearts and minds with two left feet and good sportsmanship.
"The fact is that for 23 years I was a politician and when you're a politician you do have to be moderately careful about what you do," says Widdecombe. "I said 'no' to Strictly Come Dancingevery year since 2004. But, once I ceased being a politician, that and lots of other things became possible. What I always point out to everyone who asks is that if I hadn't enjoyed it I simply wouldn't have done it."
She harbours few illusions about her dancing ability and has no problem occupying the sort of spot that, in reality TV land, is normally reserved for folks like The X Factor'sWagner. In this spirit, she did not approve of John Sergeant's bowing out from the previous series. Like Widdecombe, Sergeant was adored by the public, jeered by the judges and unlikely to be mistaken for a gazelle.
“Well I thought it was wrong,” she says. “First of all, it was a slap in the face for the public because they wanted him to stay. Secondly, this isn’t really a dance competition. If it was a proper contest you wouldn’t be starting out with myself and Matt Baker and Paul Daniels. It’s an entertainment show. It’s supposed to be fun.”
Today, as she readies herself for the London leg of Strictly Come Dancing: The Live Tour, she's using all available downtime for press engagements and work on her fifth novel. Anybody else would be feeling stressed or nervous right about now: "Oh no, no, no, absolutely not," she says. "I have nothing to be nervous about. It doesn't actually matter in my case what happens. I'm not competing. I'm not looking for a career change. I'm certainly not looking to establish a career as a dancer. I'm just having fun. If something goes wrong, the chances are high that people will presume it's part of the performance. People do like to laugh at our pantomime act which is right at the end of the show."
She's not wrong. Audiences seem to cherish her buffoonery just as much she does. In the past she has won admiration from unlikely places for her charitable work and independent thinking. But it's only since Strictly Come Dancingthat Britain's most famous spinster has become a firm family favourite.
“One of the nicest compliments I received during the show,” she says, “was when somebody came up to me at the station and told me that every time the show comes on her four-year-old asks ‘Where’s the granny? I want the granny.’ I thought that was marvellous.”
With over one million tickets sold over the past four years, Strictly Come Dancing: The Live Touris a serious business. But for Ann Widdecombe, it's a delightful and comparatively breezy change of pace.
“Westminster was responsibility,” she says. “It didn’t matter what you were working on, every single day you were affecting somebody. When I was a politician everything – the way I handled a piece of casework, the way I voted in the Commons, the decisions I took as minister, the policies I thought up when I was a shadow minister – always affected somebody. I don’t affect anybody with this.”
She laughs. “Apart from Craig. I can still stand on his toes!”
Strictly Come Dancing: The Live Tour
is at the O2 Dublin tonight and tomorrow, and at Belfasts Odyssey Arena from Tuesday to Thursday
