Reform UK politician Widdecombe, 78, was discovered useless at her residence on Thursday with severe accidents.
Printed On 10 Jul 2026
British police have arrested a 26-year-old man on suspicion of murdering Ann Widdecombe, a former authorities minister and distinguished Brexit campaigner, who was discovered useless at her residence on Thursday.
Matt Longman, from Devon and Cornwall Police, stated on Friday that the suspect remained in custody and that the incident “isn’t being handled as terrorism” or politically motivated.
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Police earlier stated they launched a homicide inquiry after officers have been referred to as to Widdecombe’s residence in southwest England round noon on Thursday and located the 78-year-old useless with severe accidents.
“Our homicide enquiry is in its early levels however transferring at a big tempo,” Devon and Cornwall Police stated in an earlier assertion.
“We’re deploying the entire essential sources to seek out out precisely what has occurred and to find the individual accountable who we imagine to be a white male.”
Forensic examinations have been persevering with on the property, they added.
Widdecombe was a Conservative member of parliament between 1987 and 2010 and held a number of junior ministerial positions in former Prime Minister John Main’s authorities. She later joined the Brexit Occasion and the far-right, anti-immigration Reform UK.
Outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed condolences to Widdecombe’s household and associates.
“That is actually stunning information,” he stated. “Ann was a distinguished politician over many, a few years with many achievements, and it’s an enormous, large loss,” he added.
A spokesperson for Labour politician Andy Burnham, who will possible be the following prime minister, stated his “deepest condolences and ideas are with Ann’s household right this moment, in extremely distressing circumstances”, British media reported.
Two serving British MPs have been murdered within the final decade. The Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed by a Nazi-obsessed loner throughout the Brexit marketing campaign in 2016. The Conservative lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to loss of life in 2021 by a person impressed by the ISIL (ISIS) group.
Socially conservative views
All through her political profession, Widdecombe was identified for her socially conservative views, together with opposition to abortion and to equalising the age of consent for gay and heterosexual relationships.
She additionally defended a coverage of shackling pregnant prisoners throughout childbirth to stop their escape.
After leaving Parliament, she appeared on the TV expertise present “Strictly Come Dancing” in 2010 and proved common with viewers.
She later joined Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party and served as a member of the European Parliament between 2019 and 2020.
Her most up-to-date publish was as immigration spokesperson for Reform UK, the rebranded Brexit Occasion, which leads in lots of opinion polls.
Following the announcement of her loss of life, and earlier than particulars of the homicide inquiry have been introduced, former colleagues from each the Conservative and Reform UK parties paid tribute to her.
Former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson described her in a publish on X as “a heroic Brexiteer and an amazing speaker who might transfer Tory audiences to such ecstasy that she was a really laborious act to comply with”.
