Widdecombe Savages Howard
Ann Widdecombe has launched a stinging attack against her former boss Michael Howard.
In a speech to the House of Commons she said "Courage and toughness are much more than instant law and instant dismissal".
She said she had agonised over making the speech for months, and that she knew "how shocked, distressed and upset not only [Mr Howard] but also my colleagues would be.". But the driving intention in raising the matter, she said, was not only to ease her conscience, but to raise the issue of standards in public life.
Miss Widdecombe held the floor for 45 minutes, electrifying the House with a detailed castigation of the former Home Secretary's actions in the house on October 19th 1995. It was on that day he debated with the then Shadow Home Secretary Jack Straw on the issue of the dismissal of the Director of the Prison Service, Derek Lewis.
Miss Widdecombe highlighted the extent to which Mr Howard sought to intervene in sensitive managerial decisions - despite his often-repeated assertion that his personal responsibility for the service was limited to policy decisions - and focused on the question of whether he misled the Commons over the extent of his involvement.
In Miss Widdecombe's view Mr Lewis had been an "outstanding" Director General, and that Mr Howard had not presented to the House a true picture of the disagreement that occured between Mr Lewis and himself.
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Howard : Denies allegations
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Miss Widdecombe said that she herself should have resigned at the time of the debate, and commented that she knew she would not be forgiven for making the statement by colleagues until the day she left the house.
The speech itemised a catologue of points where Miss Widdecombe said Mr Howard had misled the House. She castigated him for not being tough enough to withstand pressure from the then opposition, which led him to avoid taking responsibility before the House.
She also anticipated Mr Howard's response, and criticised his natural defence mechanism for "denial and semantic destidigitation".
Mr Howard raised a point of order after Miss Widdecombe's speech, asking for the minutes of a meeting in 1995 to be released. He has replied to the allegations by claiming that he did nothing he was not entitled to do.
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