Bercow’s bubble pierced by Ann’s move to play dame

 
Rallying call: Ann Widdecombe
Getty
31 January 2013

The saintly Ann Widdecombe was installed as a Papal Dame by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, the Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster.

The archbishop carried out the investiture at the Speaker’s official apartment after a mass in the Commons crypt.

Sir John Major and a clutch of senior politicians and clerics looked on. But there had been an unholy row shortly before the nation’s favourite Strictly Come Dancing star was made a Dame when the Speaker, John Bercow, barred acerbic Daily Mail columnist Andrew Pierce from the apartment. Pierce was banned after he wrote a series of hostile stories about Bercow and his wife Sally — who hasn’t, you might ask?

Undaunted, Widdecombe ensured that Pierce not only had a grandstand seat in the crypt but was also seated at her right hand at a celebration dinner in the Lords. Openly gay Pierce and Widdecombe, who is anti-gay marriage, are in fact friends. So will Pierce lay down his waspish quill and be nice about Bercow? “Not a chance,” he told me from the cloisters.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in