{"id":545718,"date":"2026-07-12T09:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T09:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/545718\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T09:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T09:55:11","slug":"uk-police-arrest-28-year-old-man-on-suspicion-of-the-murder-of-ann-widdecombe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/545718\/","title":{"rendered":"UK police arrest 28-year-old man on suspicion of the murder of Ann Widdecombe"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 28-year-old man has been arrested in South Yorkshire on suspicion of the murder of former MP and MEP Ann Widdecombe, police said.<\/p>\n

The former Conservative minister and later Reform UK spokesperson, was found dead at her home in Haytor on Dartmoor at about 11.40am on Thursday after sustaining serious injuries.<\/p>\n

A statement from Devon and Cornwall Police, late on Saturday, said: \u201cWe can confirm that a 28-year-old man was arrested at an address in the South Yorkshire area this evening (July 11th) on suspicion of the murder of Ann Widdecombe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe suspect, who is a white British national, is now in police custody.<\/p>\n

\"AnnPolice believe there is no indication Miss Widdecombe\u2019s death was a terrorism-related incident (Matt Keeble\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cMiss Widdecombe\u2019s family have been informed of this development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were supported by Counter Terrorism Policing North East and South Yorkshire Police who carried out the arrest on behalf of Devon & Cornwall Police.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time, there is still no information to suggest that this is a terrorism-related incident and as a force we retain primacy of the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Devon and Cornwall Police said earlier on Saturday that it is believed Miss Widdecombe was attacked on Wednesday at about 12.30pm.<\/p>\n

Miss Widdecombe, who was 78, was first elected a Conservative MP in Kent in 1987, went on to serve as an MEP for the Brexit Party and then a spokeswoman for Reform UK.<\/p>\n

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

Miss Widdecombe\u2019s personal driver of 10 years, Peter Horrell, lay flowers in front of her home on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters, Mr Horrell said the politician \u201cnever mentioned any fear\u201d for her safety and loved living in Haytor.<\/p>\n

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also visited the village to pay tribute to Miss Widdecombe on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"AnnPeter Horrell, who worked as Ann Widdecombe\u2019s personal driver for 10 years, lay flowers in front of her home on Saturday (PA Video)<\/p>\n

His party\u2019s MPs have been given 24-hour security following Ms Widdecombe\u2019s death, paid for by Reform, for fear of similar attacks.<\/p>\n

ITV News has published a series of WhatsApp images which appear to show that Miss Widdecombe stopped responding to messages from a TV producer after the approximate time police believe the attack took place on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

WhatsApp messages published by the broadcaster show a conversation between Miss Widdecombe and a producer from Channel 5\u2019s Matt Allwright show, ahead of her scheduled appearance on the programme on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

She last sent a message at 12.19pm that day acknowledging she had received a Zoom link to appear on the programme, which read \u201cReceived! Panic Over!\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Us<\/p>\n

World<\/p>\n

US military says it is striking Iran in response to attack on civilian vessel<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

But Miss Widdecombe did not respond to a message asking her to join the Zoom call at 12.48pm, and did not answer further calls or other messages attempting to contact her.<\/p>\n

Mr Allwright then confirmed at 1.27pm live on air she was booked to appear on the show, but had not turned up.<\/p>\n

The production team then followed up with Miss Widdecombe\u2019s agent on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 28-year-old man has been arrested in South Yorkshire on suspicion of the murder of former MP and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-545718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545718","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=545718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}