{"id":687671,"date":"2026-07-12T13:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T13:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/687671\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T13:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T13:20:08","slug":"no-evidence-of-political-motive-in-murder-of-former-uk-minister-widdecombe-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/687671\/","title":{"rendered":"No Evidence of Political Motive in Murder of Former UK Minister Widdecombe, Police Say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HAYTOR, England, July 12 (Reuters) &#8211; There is \u2060no \u2060evidence that the suspected \u2060murder of former British government minister Ann Widdecombe was \u200bpolitically motivated, police said on Sunday, adding that they were not \u200cseeking anyone else after arresting \u200ca 28-year-old man.<\/p>\n<p>Widdecombe, 78, was found dead at her home \u2060in rural \u2060southwest England on Thursday with what police described as &#8220;serious \u200binjuries&#8221;. Officers arrested a white British man in Rotherham, northern England, late on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Police urged the public not to speculate about possible motives while \u200bthe investigation remains ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At this point, there is still no information \u2060to suggest \u2060that this is \u2060a terrorism-related \u200bincident, and at this point, we are not looking for anyone else \u200bin connection with \u2060this murder,&#8221; Devon and Cornwall Police Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Detectives remain open-minded about the potential motive. At this stage, there is nothing to suggest that it was politically motivated.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A second \u2060suspect arrested on Saturday was later released without charge.<\/p>\n<p>A social conservative, \u2060Widdecombe served as a junior minister in John Major&#8217;s Conservative government in the 1990s. She stepped down as a lawmaker in 2010 but later joined Nigel Farage&#8217;s Reform UK as its immigration and justice spokesperson.<\/p>\n<p>Two serving British members of parliament have been murdered in the last decade.<\/p>\n<p>Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed by a Nazi-obsessed attacker during \u2060the Brexit campaign in 2016. Conservative lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death in 2021 by a man inspired by the militant group Islamic State.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Jack Taylor in Haytor, \u200bsouthern England and Alistair Smout in London. Editing by \u200bDavid Goodman and Mark Potter)<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Photos You Should See \u2013 June 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783862408_590_june-26-pyss-u01.jpg\" alt=\"A woman's hand presses against a plastic sheet used to replace the shattered glass of a balcony door damaged in an Israeli strike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo\/Hassan Ammar)\" class=\"Image__PictureImage-sc-412cjc-1 bBgODV Image-sc-412cjc-2 SlideshowEmbed__Picture-fkpjfn-0 kQDDcT bUlaJL\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAYTOR, England, July 12 (Reuters) &#8211; There is \u2060no \u2060evidence that the suspected \u2060murder of former British government&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[228987,924,591,59,57,58,50,48404,56,54,55,231],"class_list":["post-687671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-collections-world","tag-crime","tag-europe","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-reuters","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687671","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=687671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}