UK counter-terrorism police officers are leading an investigation into the suspected murder \u200cof former government minister Ann Widdecombe in light of new information, interior minister Shabana Mahmood says.<\/p>\n
Widdecombe, 78, was found dead at \u200cher home in rural southwest England last Thursday with what police described as \u201cserious injuries\u201d.<\/p>\n
She was a prominent member of Nigel Farage\u2019s populist Reform UK, having left the Conservatives after she stood down from parliament in 2010.<\/p>\n
Police said they arrested a \u201cwhite British\u201d man in Rotherham, northern England, late on Saturday on suspicion of her murder, and initially said there was nothing to suggest a terrorism link.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Wednesday Ann Widdecombe \u200cwas murdered in \u200cher home. The circumstances of \u2060her death are extremely distressing. Counter Terror Policing have now taken the lead in \u200bthe investigation,\u201d Mahmood told MPs.<\/p>\n
Mahmood said that \u201cnew information\u201d had come to light which had changed the character of the investigation but added that the suspect was not known to the United Kingdom\u2019s counter-radicalisation scheme Prevent.<\/p>\n
Counter-terrorism police said that the suspect had been rearrested on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, and appealed to the public for information about the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pursuing multiple lines of \u2060enquiry to establish the motivation for this attack,\u201d said Laurence Taylor, head \u200cof National Counter-Terrorism \u200bPolicing.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur priority is progressing this investigation quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Security for politicians is under scrutiny as two serving UK members of parliament have been \u200bmurdered in the \u200clast decade.<\/p>\n
Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed by a Nazi-obsessed attacker during the Brexit campaign in 2016.<\/p>\n
Conservative MP David \u200bAmess was stabbed to death in 2021 by a man inspired by the militant group Islamic State.<\/p>\n
Saying that Cox and Amess were also on her mind, Mahmood said that Widdecombe\u2019s death \u201craises questions about the security of those in public life,\u201d \u200badding \u200bthat government would work with parliament on how to \u200bprotect MPs and others involved in politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognise the particular concern that \u200cthe Reform Party will feel today, and of course Nigel Farage, the party\u2019s leader,\u201d Mahmood said, offering him a meeting to discuss security.<\/p>\n
Widdecombe was known for her socially conservative views, first as a junior minister in Conservative prime minister John Major\u2019s 1992 to 1997 government and latterly as an immigration and justice spokeswoman for Reform UK.<\/p>\n
She also found fame outside politics after starring in the TV shows Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother.<\/p>\n
Tributes have poured in following her death from across the political spectrum.<\/p>\n
\u2014with AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK counter-terrorism police officers are leading an investigation into the suspected murder \u200cof former government minister Ann Widdecombe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-690452","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\/690452","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=690452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}