Ann Widdecombe was 'one of the great orators of British politics,' a close friend tells LBC's Iain Dale
LBC caller Bob tells Iain Dale that late Conservative was a lover of animals and that he volunteered to drive her during her early years in Maidstone
A personal friend of Ann Widdecombe has hailed the late Conservative MP as "one of the greatest orators in British politics," and also a lover of animals.
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Ms Widdecombe was found dead at her home in Haytor on Dartmoor, Devon, aged 78 on Thursday, and a murder investigation has commenced.
LBC caller Bob, who knew Ms Widdecombe from the 1980s when she was breaking into the political scene in Maidstone, told Iain Dale that he was "upset" to hear she had died.
He said: "I am upset because I was very close friend with Anne for many, many years, and I just wanted to put over more of a personal side, having known her for so many years, and how she was a great lover of animals."
Bob continued: "I was on the Maidstone Executive Committee, and John Wells, who was the sitting Member of Parliament, retired, so we had to choose some others.
"So we had an evening there when we had a selection committee, and there was about three or four other people there, and Anne was one of them.
"She was a great orator. She able to put forward her views and ideas of the political side of things.
"She spoke was with clarity. She was eventually chosen to represent Maidstone and the Weald. Having spoken to, a day or two later, having spoken to the powers that be, I put myself forward to help Anne. And at that time, she had a very old, broken-down Morris Minor, and I volunteered to be her driver while she did her election."