LondonReuters\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n British police arrested a man on Friday on suspicion of murdering Ann Widdecombe after the 78-year-old former government minister and Reform UK politician was found dead having \u201csustained serious injuries.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Police said a 26-year-old, white British man had been arrested in Newton Abbot, a town about 9 miles (15 km) from Widdecombe\u2019s home in rural southwest England.\n <\/p>\n
\n Devon and Cornwall police assistant chief constable Matt Longman said there was no information to suggest the murder was related to terrorism or had a political motive.\n <\/p>\n
\n Widdecombe was well known for her socially conservative views, first as a junior minister in Conservative Prime Minister John Major\u2019s 1992-1997 government and later as an immigration and justice spokesperson for Nigel Farage\u2019s populist Reform UK.\n <\/p>\n
\n Police said officers were called to Widdecombe\u2019s home shortly after midday on Thursday, where she was found dead. Forensic examinations at the property were ongoing, they said.\n <\/p>\n
\n British Prime Minister Keir Starmer paid tribute to \u201cAnn\u2019s dedication during her many years of public service.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Two serving British members of parliament have been murdered in the last decade.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Labour lawmaker Jo Cox<\/a> was shot and stabbed by a Nazi-obsessed loner during the Brexit campaign in 2016. The Conservative lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death in 2021 by a man inspired by the militant group, Islamic State.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n Throughout her political career, Widdecombe was known for her socially conservative views, including opposition to abortion and to equalizing the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual relationships.\n <\/p>\n \n She also defended a policy of shackling pregnant prisoners during child birth to prevent their escape.\n <\/p>\n \n Although unmarried and a self-proclaimed virgin, the Catholic convert praised family values.\n <\/p>\n \n After leaving parliament, she appeared on the TV talent show \u201cStrictly Come Dancing\u201d in 2010. Despite her awkward dancing style and criticism from the judges, she was popular with viewers.\n <\/p>\n \n She later joined Nigel Farage\u2019s Brexit Party and served as a member of the European Parliament between 2019 and 2020. Her most recent post was as immigration spokesperson for Reform UK, the rebranded Brexit Party, which leads in most opinion polls.\n <\/p>\n \n Following the announcement of her death, and before details of the murder inquiry were announced, former colleagues from both the Conservative and Reform UK parties paid tribute to her.\n <\/p>\n \n Former Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson described her in a post on X as \u201ca heroic Brexiteer and a great speaker who could move Tory audiences to such ecstasy that she was a very hard act to follow.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n This is a developing story and will be updated.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LondonReuters\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 British police arrested a man on Friday on suspicion of murdering Ann Widdecombe after the 78-year-old former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-685516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685516","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=685516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}