26-year-old suspect<\/a> was arrested at an address in Newton Abbot on Friday.<\/p>\nHe said the case was \u201cnot being treated as terrorism\u201d and there was \u201cno information\u201d at this time to suggest it was a \u201cpolitically motivated crime\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThis is an extremely tragic incident. Our thoughts are very much with the family and friends of Miss Widdecombe in this very difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police are remaining \u201copen-minded\u201d about the motive for the attack and it was too early to comment on whether the suspect was known to Miss Widdecombe.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Watch the Devon and Cornwall Police press conference here<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urged people to come together across political divides following the murder.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters in his Chequers country retreat, he said he had spoken to his likely successor Andy Burnham, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK\u2019s Nigel Farage to \u201curge everybody to come together at a moment like this\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThis is really shocking news, and my thoughts, I think all of our thoughts, will be with the family and friends of Ann Widdecombe at this awful time for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnn was a distinguished politician over many, many years with many achievements, and it\u2019s a huge, huge loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
A manhunt has been launched for a white male believed to be responsible, police said. Credit: ITV News West Country<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it was important to \u201crise above any political differences\u201d.<\/p>\n
Addressing reporters, Starmer said he would not speculate on any potential motive but urged the public to help catch the \u201cclearly dangerous\u201d suspect.<\/p>\n
Conservative leader Badenoch said: \u201cI\u2019ve really struggled to find the words to say. Ann Widdecombe was a very fun and feisty woman who spoke her mind, and she was 78 years old, she was an elderly woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand how someone could do something so horrific to an elderly person. It was a nasty, horrific attack and my heart is breaking for her family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he was \u201cdeeply, deeply upset\u201d by the nature of Ann Widdecombe\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
In a message shared on social media, the Reform leader said: \u201cI\u2019m pleased the police have caught somebody, a 26-year-old man.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know what political motives are, whether they exist at all. Was it a burglary gone wrong? We just don\u2019t know. And I\u2019m not going to speculate at this stage. I\u2019m pleased the police are doing their job.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur nation is a much, much poorer place without her. Reform UK is certainly a much worse place without her. I was expecting to see her in Clacton over the course of the next few days. Sadly, that is not going to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I do fear that for anybody in public life, or especially the political space, things have become even more dangerous to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farage added it was a \u201cterrible reflection on modern Britain\u201d. <\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for Andy Burnham said: “Andy\u2019s deepest condolences and thoughts are with Ann\u2019s family today, in incredibly distressing circumstances.<\/p>\n
“Ann gave a lifetime of public service, and it\u2019s absolutely right that the police put all their resources into investigating this as swiftly as possible.”<\/p>\n
Widdecombe\u2019s management firm Cloud 9 urged people with information to contact the police and said: \u201cWe are absolutely devastated by this news following a very traumatic and upsetting 24 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Home Secretary urged the public not to speculate, describing the circumstances as \u201cextremely distressing\u201d.<\/p>\n
The ex-Tory prisons minister, who was 78, later became a Brexit Party MEP and subsequently a Reform UK spokeswoman. Credit: PA<\/p>\n
In a post on X, Shabana Mahmood said: \u201cI am deeply saddened to hear of the death of Ann Widdecombe. The circumstances of her death are extremely distressing and my thoughts are with Ann\u2019s family and loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnn\u2019s dedication to public service was decades long, and she was a true servant of her constituents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have spoken to the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall police today. The Home Office stands ready to provide whatever support they need with their ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI urge everyone to avoid speculation and allow the police investigation to progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ann Widdecombe’s last media appearance was on Wednesday when she spoke live on TalkTV via remote video link. <\/p>\n
ITV News has learnt that Miss Widdecombe was also due to be a guest, via video call from her home, on Channel 5’s Matt Allwright show at 1pm on the same day, but didn’t appear. <\/p>\n
A researcher on the show had spoken to Miss Widdecombe on the phone earlier in the afternoon to set up the interview. <\/p>\n
After the call, the researcher exchanged messages with Miss Widdecombe, with her last message received at 12:19pm.<\/p>\n
When the researcher then messaged again at 12:48pm requesting that Miss Widdecombe join the Zoom link in preparation for the remote interview, Ms Widdecombe did not reply. <\/p>\n
Subsequent voice calls and messages asking if everything was ok remained unanswered.<\/p>\n
After concerns were raised by the show’s research team about the uncharacteristic lack of response by Miss Widdecombe, who was a regular on the show, they contacted her agent later on Wednesday and followed up again on Thursday.<\/p>\n
From Westminster to Washington DC – our political experts are across all the latest key talking points. Listen to the latest episode below…<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Play Brightcove video The Prime Minister on Friday described the killing of veteran politician Ann Widdecombe as “shocking”,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-685518","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\/685518","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=685518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Play Brightcove video<\/p>\n