Widdecombe, 78, was found dead at her home<\/a> in Haytor on Dartmoor, Devon, last Thursday.<\/p>\nCounter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation into the former Conservative minister\u2019s death after new evidence came to light, but a senior officer stressed the murder and terror investigations are currently working \u201cin parallel\u201d.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, incoming prime minister Andy Burnham has said there needs to be a “serious review” into MPs’ security following the suspected murder. <\/p>\n
Speaking on Tuesday, Burnham said politics had “darkened” since he was last in Westminster and that protections may need to be “increased further”.<\/p>\n
Head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor told reporters: \u201cIt is clear that this was a targeted attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still working to understand the extent of any planning or preparation, and the motivation that sits behind that attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to comment on what that motivation was.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two investigations are running in parallel,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of the preparation and planning, we are aware that there has been some preparation and planning. I don\u2019t want to go into the details of the extent of that at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 28-year-old white British man remains under arrest on suspicion of commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of terrorism, as well as on suspicion of murder, the Assistant Commissioner said.<\/p>\n
Flowers left close to Ann Widdecombe’s home in Devon Credit: ITV News<\/p>\n
Officers have been granted a warrant of further detention, meaning the suspect can now be held for questioning for up to seven days under the Terrorism Act, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are multiple lines of inquiry that we are pursuing expeditiously, and that includes a number of digital forensic examinations,\u201d the senior officer continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to remember that this is a murder investigation following a brutal attack on a 78-year-old lady in her home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Widdecombe\u2019s body was discovered at about 11.40am on Thursday at her remote bungalow. She had sustained serious injuries.<\/p>\n
Police said looking at whether the suspect in the suspected murder of Widdecombe was targeting Reform UK figures will be a \u201cline of inquiry\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked by reporters whether the police investigation was looking at whether the suspect was targeting \u201cother Reform politicians\u201d, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said: \u201cSo clearly, part of our responsibility when investigating offences of this nature is to assure ourselves and therefore the public and others of any extant of threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat will form a line of investigation to ensure that we are putting all appropriate measures in place to mitigate any threat, should it become apparent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying there is or there isn\u2019t at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cOf course that will be a line of inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the House of Commons on Monday that the suspect was not known to the Government’s anti-extremism scheme, Prevent.<\/p>\n
Footage was shared with media outlets, including the Sun newspaper and Sky News, showing a man with no top on being arrested and led away from a house in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Police believe Widdecombe was attacked on Wednesday at about 12.30pm, shortly before she had been due on Channel 5\u2019s Matt Allwright show.<\/p>\n
ITV News later published a series of WhatsApp images that appear to show that Widdecombe stopped responding to messages from a TV producer after the approximate time police believe the attack took place that day.<\/p>\n
Widdecombe was first elected a Conservative MP in Kent in 1987, and went on to become an MEP for the Brexit Party and then a spokeswoman for Reform UK.<\/p>\n
She also found fame outside politics after starring in Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother.<\/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 Counter-terrorism police provide an update on the murder of Ann Widdecombe, calling it a “brutal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-692204","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\/692204","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=692204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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