Craig Revel Horwood said he last spoke to Ann Widdecombe just six days before the former Tory minister was killed at her home in July.

In an interview with the Daily Mirror, the Strictly Come Dancing judge called her death “terrible”.

“I literally spoke to her six days before she died, because she asked me to do a charity gig for her because she couldn’t make it, and I said, ‘Yeah, that’s absolutely fine’,” he told the paper.

“It’s coming up in October. She wanted me to be a guest speaker at one of her charities, and I said, ‘Yeah, that’s absolutely fine, darling. And the last thing she literally wrote was ‘yippee’ in lowercase letters, then capital Y, ‘Yippee,’ and then the last YIPPEE!!! was all in capital letters with three exclamation marks.

“And that was the last I ever heard from her. It was so tragic, the whole thing, but of course I’ll fulfil that commitment. I’ll dedicate it to Ann as well.”

Miss Widdecombe competed on season eight of the BBC series, partnered with current judge Anton Du Beke.

“She was an amazing human being, and she was brave; brave enough to come on Strictly and give me what for,” Horwood said.

“And then we ended up working together really closely for three years after and became good friends, and we’re still in contact, to this day.

“Well, we were in contact to this very day. It’s such a terrible thing that happened.”

Miss Widdecombe, 78, died on July 8 after she was hit over the head with a hammer 21 times at her home in Haytor on Dartmoor, Devon.

Joshua Kerry, 28, of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was charged with her murder on July 20.

Around 100 family, friends and colleagues attended her funeral at Buckfast Abbey in Devon last month.