{"id":545749,"date":"2026-07-12T10:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/545749\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T10:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:31:10","slug":"ann-widdecombe-murder-man-28-arrested-over-former-tory-ministers-death-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/545749\/","title":{"rendered":"Ann Widdecombe murder: Man (28) arrested over former Tory minister\u2019s death \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A 28-year-old man has been arrested in South Yorkshire in England on suspicion of the murder of former MP and MEP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ann-widdecombe\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ann-widdecombe\/\">Ann Widdecombe<\/a>, police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The former British 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<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">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 11) on suspicion of the murder of Ann Widdecombe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe suspect, who is a white British national, is now in police custody.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cMiss Widdecombe\u2019s family have been informed of this development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe were supported by Counter Terrorism Policing North East and South Yorkshire Police who carried out the arrest on behalf of Devon &amp; Cornwall Police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\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<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Devon and Cornwall Police said earlier on Saturday it is believed Widdecombe was attacked on Wednesday at about 12.30pm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"> 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<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She also found fame outside politics after starring in Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Widdecombe\u2019s personal driver of 10 years, Peter Horrell, lay flowers in front of her home on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Speaking to reporters, Horrell said the politician \u201cnever mentioned any fear\u201d for her safety and loved living in Haytor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also visited the village to pay tribute to Widdecombe on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">His party\u2019s MPs have been given 24-hour security following Widdecombe\u2019s death, paid for by Reform, for fear of similar attacks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">ITV News has published a series of WhatsApp images which appear to show that  Widdecombe stopped responding to messages from a TV producer after the approximate time police believe the attack took place on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">WhatsApp messages published by the broadcaster show a conversation between Widdecombe and a producer from Channel 5\u2019s Matt Allwright show, ahead of her scheduled appearance on the programme on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">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 class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">But 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<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Allwright then confirmed at 1.27pm live on air she was booked to appear on the show, but had not turned up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The production team then followed up with Widdecombe\u2019s agent on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. &#8211; PA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 28-year-old man has been arrested in South Yorkshire in England on suspicion of the murder of former&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[231414,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-545749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ann-widdecombe","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\/545749","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=545749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}