{"id":689761,"date":"2026-07-13T18:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/689761\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T18:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:41:12","slug":"suspect-in-ann-widdecombe-case-not-known-to-prevent-anti-terror-programme-home-secretary-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/689761\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect in Ann Widdecombe case not known to Prevent anti-terror programme, home secretary says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A long-serving politician with a showbiz career: Who was Ann Widdecombe?published at 16:13 BST<\/p>\n<p>16:13 BST<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Former Conservative Party MP Ann Widdecombe speaks during a rally of the Brexit Party in Peterborough, Britain May 7, 2019\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/f2d30615-7633-4586-8310-107c5105a4d6.jpg.webp\"  width=\"3771\" height=\"2121\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, ReutersImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Widdecombe speaking at a Brexit party rally in 2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Widdecombe was born in Bath, Somerset, in 1947 and went on to study Latin at Birmingham University, then philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ann Widdecombe&#8217;s political career spanned several decades, having served as a Tory MP for Maidstone in Kent from 1987 to 2010. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She worked as a Home Office and employment minister in Sir John Major&#8217;s government between 1994 to 1997. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After leaving Parliament she appeared on various prime-time television shows, appearing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 and Celebrity Big Brother in 2018. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A staunch supporter of the UK&#8217;s departure from the EU, she became an MEP for the Brexit Party, representing South West England in the European Parliament between 2019-2020. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In 2023, she joined Nigel Farage&#8217;s Reform UK, after the party changed its name from the Brexit Party, where she served as immigration and justice spokesperson. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A long-serving politician with a showbiz career: Who was Ann Widdecombe?published at 16:13 BST 16:13 BST Image source,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-689761","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\/689761","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=689761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}