![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8f745484-d25f-4fa9-9a35-f6cd06f07023.jpg.webp\")
Rachel FlynnLive reporter<\/p>\n
Man, 26, arrested after police launch murder investigation into Ann Widdecombe’s deathpublished at 20:40 BST<\/p>\n
20:40 BST<\/p>\n
Rachel Flynn
Live reporter<\/p>\n
![\"Ann](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4c00dfcb-db20-42b3-b14b-9f1bb292dadd.jpg.webp\")
Image source, ReutersImage caption, <\/p>\n
Widdecombe speaking at a Brexit Party campaign event in London in 2019<\/p>\n
This afternoon, police announced they had launched a murder investigation into the death of Ann Widdecombe, 78-year-old former Conservative minister turned Reform UK spokeswoman. <\/p>\n
This is how the news unfolded:<\/p>\n
Friday morning: Widdecombe’s agent announced her death “with great shock and sadness”, but did not say when, how or where she died. <\/p>\n
Friday early afternoon: Devon and Cornwall Police said <\/a>Widdecombe was found deceased at her home on Thursday morning with serious injuries, and they had launched a murder investigation into her death. <\/p>\n Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the media<\/a> the investigation is “shocking news”, adding that Widdecombe’s death is a “significant loss”.<\/p>\n Later in the afternoon: Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman announced that a 26-year-old white British man was arrested on Friday afternoon on suspicion of Widdecombe’s murder, at an address in Newton Abbot – not far from Widdecombe’s home in the Haytor area in Dartmoor.<\/a><\/p>\n What else do we know?<\/p>\n Police say the murder inquiry is in its early stages, but do not consider it a terrorist incident and say there is no information at this time to suggest it is politically motivated. They’re appealing to the public for any relevant information<\/a>. <\/p>\n Tributes have been pouring in – Reform UK leader Nigel Farage<\/a> called her an “extraordinary” and “remarkable, principled woman”, while her partner in Strictly Come Dancing in 2010, Anton Du Beke<\/a>, said he was “devastated”. <\/p>\n We’re ending our live coverage here. For more, you can read about the investigation in our news story <\/a>and here is everything we know so far.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Man, 26, arrested after police launch murder investigation into Ann Widdecombe’s deathpublished at 20:40 BST 20:40 BST Rachel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-684979","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\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}