{"id":544156,"date":"2026-07-11T08:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T08:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/544156\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T08:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T08:20:08","slug":"man-26-arrested-on-suspicion-of-ann-widdecombes-murder-released-and-no-longer-part-of-investigation-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/544156\/","title":{"rendered":"Man (26) arrested on suspicion of Ann Widdecombe\u2019s murder released and no longer part of investigation \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 26-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murdering former MP and MEP Ann Widdecombe<\/a> has been released from custody and is no longer part of the investigation, police said.<\/p>\n

The former Conservative prisons minister was found dead at her home in Haytor on Dartmoor on Thursday after sustaining serious injuries.<\/p>\n

Widdecombe, who was 78, later became a Brexit<\/a> Party MEP and subsequently a Reform UK<\/a> spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

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

On Saturday Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed the man\u2019s release from custody, following his arrest on Friday.<\/p>\n

Assistant chief constable Matt Longman said: \u201cOur priority remains identifying those responsible and ensuring that all available evidence is thoroughly examined.<\/p>\n

\u201cDetectives continue to carry out numerous enquiries as part of the ongoing investigation and we remain committed to establishing the full circumstances surrounding the incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the investigation was \u201cmoving at a significant pace\u201d, adding: \u201cWe are deploying all of the necessary resources to find out exactly what has happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will release further information when we are able to do so. In the meantime, I would ask people not to speculate about what might have happened, particularly on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not only potentially harmful to our investigation but also deeply distressing for family and friends of Miss Widdecombe. The family have also asked for their privacy to be respected as they come to terms with what has happened.<\/p>\n

Devon and Cornwall Police previously said the cause of death is \u201cnot being treated as terrorism\u201d and there is \u201cno information\u201d at this time to suggest it was a \u201cpolitically-motivated crime\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement on social media, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage<\/a> said the former MP and MEP\u2019s death, and subsequent police murder investigation, was a \u201cterrible reflection on modern Britain\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a video statement published on social media, he said: \u201cAnd I do fear that for anybody in public life, or especially the political space, things have become even more dangerous today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, prime minister Keir Starmer urged people to come together across political divides following the murder.<\/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 Sir John Major\u2019s government.<\/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

She became a member of Farage\u2019s Brexit Party in 2019 and served as an MEP representing southwest England in Brussels between 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n

She later became immigration and justice spokeswoman for Farage\u2019s Reform UK and remained active in the media \u2013 she appeared on TalkTV on Wednesday, the day before she was found dead.<\/p>\n

Widdecombe was also due to be a guest on Channel 5\u2019s Matt Allwright show on Wednesday afternoon, but did not appear, as first reported by ITV.<\/p>\n

She had exchanged messages with a researcher from the show, but did not respond when they tried to contact her to join a Zoom call from home.<\/p>\n

Calls and texts sent after the programme aired remained unanswered, ITV said, and the Channel 5 show\u2019s team followed up with her agent later on Wednesday and on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 26-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murdering former MP and MEP Ann Widdecombe has been released from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57092,42,43,17144,40,38,41,39,303],"class_list":["post-544156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-brexit","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-reform-uk","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544156","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=544156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}