Police investigate the home of 78-year-old former government minister Ann Widdecombe after she was found dead, in Haytor, Britain, July 11. A 28-year-old man was arrested Saturday evening in South Yorkshire, roughly 430 kilometres from Haytor.Jack Taylor/Reuters
Police investigating the death of a British politician have arrested a man on suspicion of murder and sought to reassure the country that the incident was not politically motivated.
Former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe, 78, was found dead at her home in Haytor, in southwest England, last Thursday. She was well known for her socially conservative views and had become a high-profile figure in Reform UK, the populist right-wing party led by Nigel Farage.
Devon and Cornwall police believe Ms. Widdecombe, who never married and lived alone, was attacked on July 8 at around 12:30 p.m. She’d been interviewed that morning by TalkTV and was scheduled to participate in another interview via Zoom with Channel 5 in the afternoon.
Police officers found her body the following morning and said Ms. Widdecombe had sustained serious injuries.
A 26-year-old man from the nearby town of Newton Abbot was arrested Friday on suspicion of murder but was released the next day. Police said he was no longer being investigated.
A 28-year-old man, described by police as a white British national, was arrested Saturday evening in South Yorkshire, roughly 430 kilometres from Haytor. Devon and Cornwall police were assisted by counterterrorism officers in Yorkshire.
“At this time, there is still no information to suggest that this is a terrorism-related incident. And at this point we are not looking for anyone else in connection with the murder,” Devon Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman said Sunday. He added that “at this stage there is nothing to suggest that it was politically motivated.”
Flower tributes lie next to a portrait of Ann Widdecombe after she was found dead, as the police investigation continues, July 11.Jack Taylor/Reuters
Ms. Widdecombe’s death has stunned and horrified politicians on all sides. In the past decade, two sitting MPs − Labour’s Jo Cox and Conservative David Amess − were murdered while meeting with constituents in their ridings.
“It’s really shocking news,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday. “My thoughts, I think all of our thoughts, will be with the family and friends of Ann Widdecombe at this awful time for them.”
Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch said she couldn’t “understand how someone could do something so horrific to an elderly person.” She added that “the Conservative Party is reeling.”
Mr. Farage said Britain was “a much, much poorer place without” Ms. Widdecombe. He speculated that the killing may have been deliberate and not a burglary gone wrong, as many have suggested.
“From what I can see of it, from what I can make out, this was premeditated murder. Whether it was politically motivated, whether it was somebody with a grudge, I don’t think it pays at this moment in time to speculate,” he said Saturday.
Leader of the Reform UK party Nigel Farage lays flowers at Dartmoor National Park near the home of former government minister and Reform UK party member Ann Widdecombe, July 11.Jack Taylor/Reuters
Ms. Widdecombe was a staunch social conservative who vigorously opposed abortion and same-sex marriage. She served as a Conservative MP from 1987 to 2010 and held a couple of junior cabinet posts. She switched her political allegiance to Mr. Farage’s Brexit Party in 2019 and represented the party in the European Parliament until the U.K. formally left the European Union in January, 2020.
She was an ardent supporter of Brexit and drew sharp criticism for saying during her maiden speech in the European Parliament that the U.K. leaving the EU was comparable to “slaves” rising up “against their owners.”
When Mr. Farage rebranded the Brexit Party as Reform UK in 2021, Ms. Widdecombe became its spokesperson on immigration. On the day she died, she’d been doing a round of media interviews defending Mr. Farage, who has run into controversy over undeclared financial contributions from Reform donors.
Outside politics, Ms. Widdecombe showed a lighthearted side of her personality by becoming a reality TV star. She won over hordes of fans with an appearance on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010. Despite having minimal talent and facing withering criticism from a judge who described her as “a dancing hippo,” Ms. Widdecombe’s infectious joy stole the show and she made it to the quarter-finals that season.
She also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and played the Wicked Queen in several performances of a Snow White pantomime, performing with a drag queen.