Latest news with #AnnWiddecombe
Telegraph
27-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Ann Widdecombe leads revolt against Farage's benefits giveaway
Nigel Farage faces a rebellion from Ann Widdecombe over his commitment to fully reinstate the winter fuel payment as part of a benefits giveaway. The Reform UK leader said he would restore the benefit to all retirees after Sir Keir Starmer stripped it from more than 10 million people. The Prime Minister committed on Wednesday to a partial U-turn but remains outflanked by Mr Farage on both winter fuel cuts and the two-child benefit cap, which Reform has vowed to abolish. Restoring the winter fuel allowance to every pensioner would come at an estimated cost of £1.4 billion a year and the move is seen as an attempt to appeal to Left-leaning voters. Although Ms Widdecombe, the party's home affairs and justice spokesman, agreed in principle to reinstating the benefit, she went against Mr Farage's plan for blanket eligibility in what could be interpreted as a polite challenge to the Reform leader. Ms Widdecombe said: 'What I have always said is that I would have restored it for everybody except higher-rate taxpayers. 'But there is an argument to say that that takes administration, and that it might be just as cheap to give it to everybody.' Reform continues to offer a broadly Right-wing economic agenda, including pledges to begin a bonfire of red tape and raise the income tax personal allowance to £20,000. Mr Farage is also planning to scrap net zero as part of efforts to raise £350 million that would pay for the return of the allowance, the end of the two-child benefit cap and tax breaks for married parents. Ms Widdecombe, a former Tory minister, went on to recall how she donated her own winter fuel cash to charity when she was eligible for the payment. She said: ' I used to give it away every year when we all got it. 'The other option that hasn't been explored, as far as I know, is where everybody got it but we had to apply for it first. 'My mother and I never applied. That goes back to the Nineties when my mother was living with me and I said to her, 'I hope you don't want to apply for the winter fuel allowance.' And she said, 'Of course not.' 'The reason it was then extended to everybody was the administration of applying for everybody, and then it was claimed a lot of people didn't apply and didn't know how to apply.' 'Poured scorn on universal benefits' Ms Widdecombe also expressed her opposition to the principle of a universal winter fuel allowance in an article for the GB News website last year. She wrote: 'I have myself for a very long time poured scorn on universal benefits, which add to the coffers of the rich as well as the poor… '[I] am wont to tell the tale of how I once got my winter fuel payment and my cheque for Strictly Come Dancing in the same post.' Mr Farage's intervention last weekend – first reported by The Telegraph – led to fresh demands from Labour rebels for No 10 to speed up planned policy shifts on both policies. Sir Keir Starmer is open to scrapping the two-child benefit cap but Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, is understood to be resisting an immediate announcement until she can spell out how to fund it.
Spectator
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Why are today's MPs so incredibly drab?
Current MPs in Britain seem, at times, a drab and depressing bunch. 'The quality of parliamentarian,' Ann Widdecombe said on a recent podcast, 'is the lowest I can ever remember.' It was not just the reluctance most sensible people feel about exposing themselves to such overwhelming and intrusive media focus, she explained, that was putting better candidates off. It was also down to the identity-driven shortlists all three main parties have embraced in the past few decades. 'They began to select on identity rather than merit,' Widdecombe pointed out – adding that if you do that 'for a quarter-century odd, then it's going to have an impact on the quality of people in parliament.' As a new political play, the 'Gang of Three', opens at the King's Head theatre in London, about the relationship between Denis Healey, Roy Jenkins and Tony Crosland – three Labour MPs from the past who were anything but dull – the gap between now and then seems painfully wide.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Yorkshire Sikh Forum honoured at City Hall for decades of service
More than three decades of voluntary service to Bradford and the wider region, on the part of the Yorkshire Sikh Forum, were recognised at an event at Bradford City Hall in April. Members of the Forum were individually presented with a Certificate of Achievement and a commemorative glass trophy by the Lord Mayor, councillor Beverley Mullaney, on April 29. The Forum was established in 1989 at the request of the Home Office - under the leadership of Ann Widdecombe and then-Minister Kenneth Clarke - to act as a bridge between the Sikh community and UK authorities. In the words of a spokesperson, "the Forum has since served as a key point of contact for community engagement, information dissemination, and ambassadorial representation." While maintaining its independence from religious affiliations, the Forum collaborates with other faith groups, including the Bradford Council of Mosques, Bradford Cathedral, the city's synagogue, and Hindu and Muslim communities. Under the current leadership of Dr Nirmal Singh MBE, the Forum continues to uphold the Sikh principle of Seva - "service above self." The Lord Mayor led the Forum members on a guided tour of City Hall following the ceremony, showcasing historic relics and civic memorabilia.
Telegraph
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Most of us would rather leave our money to donkeys than this incompetent Government
What is it about donkeys? In Italy's Veneto, they turn the Furlana breed, or so the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity tells me, into salami. In Britain, a surprising number of us choose to bequeath our worldly goods to their welfare. In 2023, the Donkey Sanctuary, based near Sidmouth in Devon, received £32,396,000 in legacies, far outstripping the £15,161,000 they received in lifetime donations. The charity's assets stood at over £100m and they cared for over 6,500 donkeys and mules. The UK donkey population stands at around 27,000 – so around £1,885 was raised per British beast in just one year. For those wanting to leave their assets to more specific asinine causes, there is the Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land. Its patrons include ex-politician and Strictly contestant, Ann Widdecombe, retired sports presenter Des Lynam and broadcaster Kay Burley. The charity received over £1m in legacies in 2023, out of a total income of just over £2m. It looks after around 180 donkeys in Israel and operates a clinic in the Palestinian town of Nablus that is 'extremely busy, especially on Thursdays when the nearby donkey market is in operation'. They currently have an emergency appeal going for the donkeys of Gaza. 'The war in Gaza is a catastrophe which has brought death and destruction on an unimaginable scale… But there are also donkeys caught up in the conflict,' we are told. Last week, the University of Exeter announced their film studies students could take a module exploring the portrayal of donkeys on the screen. I dimly remember Sunday nights in my 1980s childhood watching Esther Rantzen's That's Life – a rather bizarre mixture of consumer affairs and light entertainment – giving seemingly endless accounts of that week's fiesta in some obscure and unpronounceable flyblown Spanish town planning to do unspeakable things to an unfortunate donkey. British TV viewers would somehow come to the asinine beast's rescue. (My own two boys don't realise just how lucky they are, at least in regard to their myriad viewing options). Perhaps an under-explored aspect of the Brexit vote is to what extent different attitudes to animals drove us away from our Continental neighbours – we seem particularly prone to mawkishness when it comes to lesser creatures. Donkeys are far from the only animals to be recipients of our end-of-life largesse. The People's Dispensary for Sick Animals, the Dogs Trust and the Cats Protection League feature year after year in the ranking of the top 20 charities for legacy income, each receiving more this way than the Devonian donkey home. And giving experts estimate that this legacy income will only go up in the coming years. In the 2023-24 tax year, the total legacy income of UK charities was estimated by consultancy Legacy Futures at around £4.1bn, up from £900m 20 years ago. This torrent funding comes from around 142,000 bequests, although just 13,000 of these account for over £2.4bn of giving. Unsurprisingly, health and medical research charities are the largest recipients, receiving 41pc of the total – but animals come in second at 15pc, or over £600m per annum. Children's charities in contrast receive only around one fifth as much, a little over £120m. Legacy Futures estimates that annual charitable legacies will rise to £6.5bn annually in real terms by 2060. What is behind the inexorable rise in British legacy giving? The total property wealth of those over 65 in the UK is estimated at over £2.5 trillion. The vast majority of this money will, of course, pass on to children – and some of this will be transferred while the parents are still alive. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that £17bn is lent or given each year by still living parents to their adult children. But some of these funds will go to other places, whether it is because there are no children to pass things on to or for whatever other reason. And Palestinian donkeys may not even be the oddest cause. The Socialist Party of Great Britain is an old and unusual political beast. It is a Marxist, but anti-Leninist, political party that denounced the Bolshevik revolution not long after it happened for being anti-socialist, or at least contra its own interpretation of the creed. Some who pass its headquarters on Clapham High Street may wonder how it keeps going with its dwindling membership (you need to pass an exam in the correct interpretation of the German sage's words to be admitted). The answer is that Electoral Commission figures show it has received legacies of nearly £2m in the last 10 years. It seems many of us are willing to leave our money virtually anywhere other than to the Exchequer. Charitable legacies are exempt from inheritance tax. Furthermore, since 2012, if 10pc or more of an estate is left to charity, then the rate of inheritance tax on anything above the threshold is reduced from 40pc to 36pc. Most of us want to decide for ourselves what happens to our money, rather than leave it to the whims and priorities of a here today, gone tomorrow government. And it turns out that donkeys are one of the beneficiaries of this near universal instinct.
BBC News
28-01-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Reform gains first Somerset councillor after Tory defection
Reform UK has gained its first unitary councillor in Somerset after a long-standing Conservative councillor defected to the political Height, who represents Shepton Mallet, said she was "very happy" that Reform would best represent the interests of people in the Height was originally elected to Shepton Mallet Town Council in 2009 and then Mendip District Council in 2011 as a Conservative councillor for the Shepton East said: "I have spoken to Ann Widdecombe and others. I am now very happy that Reform UK will serve my constituency better than any other party." After retaining her seat in 2015, Ms Height successfully stood as an independent in 2019 before re-joining the Conservatives in July 2020, becoming one of two division members for Shepton Mallet on the new Somerset Council in the May 2022 local three years into her term, Ms Height has now jumped to Reform UK, which is led by Nigel her decision to defect, Ms Height said: "My constituents constantly tell me they see no difference between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, and there should be a substantial difference."We have unique problems in Shepton Mallet that are just not being dealt with by these parties."There are only two surgeries with no extra provision made for the many newly arriving people." 'Huge frustration' She added: "Of huge frustration is also the lack of road maintenance, and the same old parties promise that they will deal with the problem, but instead spend precious money on frivolous things."Ms Height, who is Danish and moved to the UK in 1992, is now an official member of the Wells and Mendip Hills parliamentary constituency branch for party is seeking to improve on its performance at last year's general election, where Helen Hims finished third in the newly-formed constituency with 13.1% of the vote behind the winning Lib Dem candidate, MP Tessa Munt (46.9%), and Conservative candidate Meg Powell-Chandler (24.8%).Reform's constituency branch chair Aimee Smith said: "It's fabulous to have Bente with us as we rapidly expand our members and supporters, and it's clear we are going to work very well together to bring the genuine change that people are so desperately seeking."
