Ann Widdecombe: The family will announce a public memorial later this year

A public memorial for Ann Widdecombe will be held later this year, her family said in a statement.

Widdecombe, 78, a former Conservative minister and spokeswoman for Reform UK, died of severe head injuries at her Dartmoor home earlier this month.

Her family thanked the public for the outpouring of condolences but asked that her private service, which will be held in the coming weeks and to which invitations have been sent, be “restricted to those close to Anne”.

“We understand there is great public interest in Ann Widdecombe’s funeral,” the statement said.

“A private service for family and close friends will be held in the coming weeks, and invitations to this ceremony have been distributed.

“More public commemoration will take place during the year, the details will be released in time.

While we are very grateful for the wide-ranging condolences, the family asks that this memorial service be limited to those closest to Anne.

Acknowledgments From the television stars and from the political sphere poured into Widdecombe Following her death.

In the year Anton du Beek, her partner on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010, said he was devastated, calling it “very sad news”.

“I had a great time with En, Strictly Come Dancing, she was a real friend, she was fun, she was polite, she was positive, she was supportive, she was game, she wanted to get into the spirit of the whole thing,” he said in a video on X.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, to whom Widdecombe was shadow home secretary from 1999 to 2001, said the party was “tottering”.

She described Widdecombe as “a very entertaining and polite woman who spoke her mind”, while current Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described Widdicombe as a “respectable politician”.

In a video posted on social media, Farage said Widdecombe was an “extraordinary woman” who “dedicated her life to public service, to fighting for what she believed in”.

He described her as “a devout Christian and a strong social conservative. She may not be popular in modern Britain, but Anne believed.”