“I was still in parliament when the Labour government passed the Freedom of Information Act. As the then shadow home secretary I queried whether in some areas it did enough to open up the work of government to public scrutiny.”

British politician and media personality

Ann Widdecombe is a British politician and media personality. A Conservative MP from 1987 to 2010, she represented Maidstone and The Weald, and earlier Maidstone, in the House of Commons. She later joined the Brexit Party, later Reform UK, in 2019. She served as a Member of the European Parliament for South West England from 2019 to 2020, and as the party’s immigration and justice spokesperson from 2023 until 2026.