Ann Widdecombe gives talk in Bognor

She presented An Evening with Ann Widdecombe at the Alexandra Theatre. Ms Widdecombe was introduced by Bognor Regis and Littlehampton MP Nick Gibb.

She then spoke for 40 minutes about her life as an MP, a minister in John Major's government and the author of four best-selling novels.

During the interval she signed books and in the second half took questions from the floor.

These covered a range of national political issues, including why she decided to stand down as an MP and thus make it difficult for her to win the speakership of the House of Commons.

Mr Gibb, who gave the vote of thanks, said: "Ann Widdecombe is a politician of strong principle who says what she believes.

"As such she is widely respected and she will be missed from the House of Commons after the general election.

"Her talk was full of humour, was highly entertaining, but also included important insights into British politics."

Ms Widdecombe, who was 62 on Sunday, worked for Unilever and then the University of London while battling for a seat in the House of Commons, losing in Burnley and Devonport before winning Maidstone at the 1987 general election.

She rose through the ranks of the Conservative government, eventually becoming a minister of state at the Home Office in 1995, a position she held until the Tories were swept out of office in 1997.

But she stayed in parliament, winning the new seat of Maidstone and The Weald with a majority of 9,603, and continued her rise in opposition, becoming shadow home secretary in 1999.

Two years later, after failing to win enough parliamentary support to contest the party leadership, she returned to the back benches.

In 2007 she announced she would not stand at the next general election.

Since leaving the front bench she has written four books '“ The Clematis Tree, An Act of Treachery, An Act of Peace and Father Figure.

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