The death of Ann Widdecombe calls to mind the song of the same name by Victoria Wood. The festive ditty describes the then-shadow home secretary, as ‘our favourite Tory biddy’ with Wood, done up to resemble the no-nonsense Conservative, emerging from behind a curtain crooning: ‘Ann Widdecombe! Ann Widdecombe! I sing, I dance, I lean to the right/ I’m truculent, I’m succulent, I am a star.’

Revelling in the demise of an old lady, all because she refused to affirm your sexuality or gender identity or because you mistake her fidelity to two millennia of Christian doctrine for irrational hatred, does not make you the better person

Revelling in the demise of an old lady, all because she refused to affirm your sexuality or gender identity or because you mistake her fidelity to two millennia of Christian doctrine for irrational hatred, does not make you the better person

The lyrics were absurd and Wood’s approximation of Widdecombe – with buck teeth and bulging bosom – grotesque, but the song captured something about the Tory that none of the other send-ups of the time managed. Widdecombe was ludicrous, and for many objectionable, but she was indeed a star, one ready-made for the dawn of reality television.

Widdecombe was a more accomplished TV star than MP because, while her unmodernised views and unstylised demeanour were out of step with the Blairified politics of the late Nineties, they made her something the British are eternally drawn to: an eccentric. Wood seemed to understand that too and, though I doubt she was sympathetic politically, she ran the musical number past Widdecombe before recording it, a courtesy Widdecombe said no other comedian ever extended to her.While her detractors in the political class and media could never forgive her social conservatism, her fame had nothing to do with policies or principles. It was all her. The viewers of Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother relished her candour and........

© The Spectator