'Strictly complaints are just woke celebs being lazy wimps', rages Ann Widdecombe

Ann Widdecombe commented on the Strictly complaints (Image: Getty)

Ann Widdecombe has blasted celebrities complaining about their treatment on Strictly Come Dancing as "wimps".

The former Tory prisons minister, who appeared on the BBC dance show partnered with Anton du Beke in 2010, told the Daily Express: "What people don't realise is the celebrity was in control. If you don't want to do any more training that day, you say so and it ends."Asked whether she had seen any evidence of bullying or aggressive behaviour during her time on the show, she said: "Not at all. I never heard a single complaint. I occasionally heard people saying they were tired but that was it. It's a competition, it's tough training from scratch, but if you want to do well, you have to give it your all."Anton and I were taking it much more gently because, as far as I was concerned, it was a comedy performance. But if you're serious about the show, you need to out a lot into it. And the more you put in, the more you get back."

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Ann Widdecombe appeared on Strictly (Image: PA) The politician and broadcaster, who campaigned on behalf of Reform UK is the recent general election, appeared in the eighth series of the BBC show. It was eventually won by former EastEnder Kara Tointon with Russian dancer Artem Chigvintsev. Despite some scratchy performances, Ann and Anton were the ninth couple to be eliminated.Ann, 76, a Daily Express columnist, blamed "modern day snowflakery, the cult of victimhood, being a complete wimp" for the rash of complaints over recent weeks from celebrities.Controversy has seen the departure of two of the professional dancers, Giovanni Pernice and Graziano di Prima, following complaints about their behaviour towards their celebrity partners."I think what you've got here is just the cult of victimhood and it's everywhere," she added.

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But asked whether it might be different for a younger celebrity to stand up to a domineering dance partner, she said: "They're not kids, they're adults. All the ones that are complaining are adults."She continued: "A lot of it comes down to 'woke'. But I ask myself how any of them would've coped with what my parent's generation went through. My grandmother was bombed out. She came up out an air raid shelter to find she had no house. Now that's what I call stress. Not simply that your dancing partner has spoken to you rather sternly."Asked why so-called 'wokeness' had peaked under 14-years of Conservative government, she added: "It was around well before the last government. Well before that."Ann said she was still occasionally in touch with her former dancer partner turned judge Anton, 57, and veteran judge Craig Revel Horwood, 59.Asked if she discussed the controversy with either of them, she added: "No. I just think it's all so pathetic."

'Strictly complaints are just woke celebs being lazy wimps', rages Ann Widdecombe

'Strictly complaints are just woke celebs being lazy wimps', rages Ann Widdecombe

'Strictly complaints are just woke celebs being lazy wimps', rages Ann Widdecombe

'Strictly complaints are just woke celebs being lazy wimps', rages Ann Widdecombe

'Strictly complaints are just woke celebs being lazy wimps', rages Ann Widdecombe