Widdecombe’s political career spanned several decades, having served as a Tory MP for Maidstone in Kent from 1987 to 2010.

Following her departure from the Commons, Widdecombe appeared on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2010. Paired with Anton du Beke, the dance partners reached the semi-finals. She also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018.

She then joined the Brexit Party in 2019 where she represented South West England as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2020.

In 2023, she joined Farage’s Reform UK, where she was the party’s Immigration and Justice spokesperson.

There has been widespread shock across the political spectrum following news of the murder inquiry.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Friday he had spoken to his likely successor, Andy Burnham, as well as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Farage to “urge everybody to come together”.

Paying tribute, former Tory MP Edwina Currie described Widdecombe as a “brilliant” and “articulate” woman.

“Yesterday was one of the worst days many of us had experienced,” she told BBC’s Today Programme on Saturday. “Then to find she had been killed, it was just absolutely awful. I still feel absolutely devastated by it.”

“Underneath a lot of the hard shell, I think she was a very kind woman,” she added.

Broadcaster and former MP Gyles Brandreth, described his long-time friend who he had met at Oxford University in 1967 as “fun” and “feisty even then”.

“What was great about Ann is you could disagree with her – and I disagreed with her on so many issues, more and more as the years went by,” he said, adding once it was over they would “have a drink and have a laugh about it”.