Ann Widdecombe 'won't quit Strictly'

Ann Widdecombe has insisted that she will not quit Strictly Come Dancing.

The ex-Conservative MP has consistently finished in the bottom two on the judges' leaderboard but has never finished in the bottom two after the public vote.

Widdecombe has now promised that she will not follow the example of former contestant John Sergeant, who withdrew from the competition after viewers kept voting to save him at the expense of better dancers.

Widdecombe told BBC Radio Devon that leaving "would be a slap in the face for the public".

She said: "The public are deciding who goes through and who does not go through. If the public say we want to see you again next week and you say, 'I've got better things to do,' that seems incredibly rude."

The 63-year-old also said that critics of her popularity on the show are forgetting that the programme is meant to be "entertainment", not "sport".

"If this were merely a dancing competition it wouldn't be Saturday night entertainment," she pointed out. "It would be BBC Sport and it would be run on completely different lines.

"This is entertainment. If people don't like what the public are deciding, bad luck. Try being a politician."