{"id":542935,"date":"2026-07-10T15:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T15:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542935\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T15:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T15:50:13","slug":"uk-police-begin-murder-investigation-in-to-death-of-reform-uk-member-ann-widdecombe-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542935\/","title":{"rendered":"UK police begin murder investigation in to death of Reform UK member Ann Widdecombe \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK<\/a> police have begun a murder investigation into the death of former MP and minister Ann Widdecombe.<\/p>\n

The ex-Tory<\/a> prisons minister, who was 78, later became a Brexit<\/a> Party MEP and subsequently a Reform UK spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

She also found fame outside politics after starring in Strictly Come Dancing.<\/p>\n

\u201cA murder investigation has been launched following the suspicious death of former MP Ann Widdecombe at her home on Dartmoor in Devon,\u201d Devon and Cornwall Police said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Police were called to an address at Haytor in Devon by the ambulance service at around 11.40am on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Det chief insp Ilona Rosson from Devon and Cornwall police said: \u201cThis is an extremely tragic incident and our thoughts are very much with the family and friends of Ann Widdecombe at this difficult time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur murder enquiry is in its early stages but moving at a significant pace. We are deploying all of the necessary resources to find out exactly what has happened and to locate the person responsible who we believe to be a white male.\u201d<\/p>\n

Widdecombe, who appeared on Talk radio on Wednesday, lived in Haytor, near Newton Abbott in Devon.<\/p>\n

An earlier statement from Widdecombe\u2019s management said: \u201cIt is with great sadness that today we announce the death of the Rt Hon Ann Widdecombe, DSG.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe send our deepest condolences to Ann\u2019s family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Widdecombe was a Conservative MP between 1987 and 2010 for the Kent constituency of Maidstone, later Maidstone and the Weald and held several ministerial positions in former prime minister John Major\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

She famously clashed with her Conservative colleague Michael Howard, when she was a home office minister and he home secretary, describing him as having \u201csomething of the night about him\u201d.<\/p>\n

Widdecombe also faced criticism for defending a policy of chaining pregnant prisoners to their beds.<\/p>\n

A statement from her management company said she would be missed \u201cgreatly\u201d.<\/p>\n

It read: \u201cHer life and career were driven by her strong Christian values and commitment to public service. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe loved the cut and thrust of political debate and, 16 years after leaving parliament, was still actively campaigning for Reform UK and offering forthright views on the hot topics of the day across numerous radio and television programmes. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnn was a valued patron of many causes, particularly her animal charities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Ann once said on The Graham Norton Show, \u2018we get one go this side of eternity, one go. Life is not a dress rehearsal, you take opportunities that you like and you go for it, that\u2019s my philosophy\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her post-Commons career she appeared on the BBC\u2019s Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 partnered with Anton du Beke and survived until the competition\u2019s semi-finals thanks to the public vote.<\/p>\n

Throughout her political career, Widdecombe was a prominent Eurosceptic and supported the Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 Brexit referendum.<\/p>\n

She became a member of the Brexit Party from 2019 and served as an MEP representing South West England in Brussels between 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

Widdecombe joined Nigel Farage<\/a>\u2019s Reform UK in 2023, the successor to the Brexit Party, and made an appearance at its party conference the following year as Reform\u2019s immigration spokesperson.<\/p>\n

She was also known for her socially conservative views, which included opposing the legality of abortion and widening rights for the LGBT community, during her Commons career. – PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK police have begun a murder investigation into the death of former MP and minister Ann Widdecombe. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57092,61793,42,43,6236,17144,40,38,41,39,1192,303],"class_list":["post-542935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-brexit","tag-conservative-and-unionist-party","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-nigel-farage","tag-reform-uk","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-politics","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}