The veteran politician Ann Widdecombe, 78, has been found dead with serious injuries and a man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
The Major Crimes Investigation Team at Devon and Cornwall Police have now launched a murder investigation which is “in its early stages but moving at significant pace,” said a spokesman for the force.
Meanwhile Keir Starmer asked the public to heed the police’s appeal for anyone with information to contact the investigation. “I urge anybody who’s got any information which may be of assistance to the police to come forward,” he said.
Widdecombe was found dead at her home on Thursday morning. After serious injuries were identified by Ambulance Service staff, the police were called to the scene.
The former Tory minister’s death made news on Friday morning but the nature of her death was unknown as the first tranche of tributes flowed in from her former colleagues and political opponents.
It was only on Friday afternoon that the true nature of Widdecombe’s death emerged, as police conducted a man hunt for the suspect.
Late on Friday a 26-year-old white British man was arrested in Newton Abbott, not far from Widdecombe’s home where her body was found.
Devon and Cornwall Police has been reluctant to comment on the details of the investigation.
While Widdecombe’s death comes after a week of heated discussion about the safety of politicians, a police spokesman said the case was not being treated as terrorism and that there was no information to suggest the crime was politically motivated.
The police have asked the public not to speculate on the circumstances of the case.
Widdecombe had a half-century career in British politics, originally working as an adviser for a Conservative MP in the mid-1970s. In 1979 she stood unsuccessfully in her first parliamentary election.
She entered the House of Commons as the Conservative MP for Maidstone at the 1987 general election. Under the premiership of John Major, she served as a minister of health, employment and finally as minister for Prisons.
When the Tories were led by William Hague in opposition, she served as shadow health secretary and then shadow home secretary.
After a long career in the Conservative Party, Widdecombe defected to the Brexit Party in 2019 whereupon she was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in the 2019 European elections.
She remained active in politics through her life. After briefly becoming an independent, Widdecombe joined Reform UK in 2023 and served as the party’s immigration and justice spokesperson.
Alongside her political career, she wrote a series of novels and found a broader public profile through appearances in reality television programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing.
[Further reading: Four things we learned from PMQs]
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