{"id":52224,"date":"2026-07-13T19:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T19:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/52224\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T19:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T19:30:23","slug":"british-counterterrorism-police-take-over-investigation-into-horrific-murder-of-veteran-politician","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/52224\/","title":{"rendered":"British counterterrorism police take over investigation into “horrific murder” of veteran politician"},"content":{"rendered":"

British counterterrorism police have taken over the investigation into the death of former politician Ann Widdecombe<\/a>, according to the U.K. home secretary, after “new information” came to light.<\/p>\n

“This morning I have spoken to the head of [Counter Terrorism Policing],” Shabana Mahmood wrote on X<\/a>. “Following new information and evidence, they are now leading on the investigation into the horrific murder of Ann Widdecombe.”<\/p>\n

“The police are pursuing multiple lines of enquiry to establish the motivation for this attack,” she said, adding that she would be giving further information to parliament later on Monday.<\/p>\n

A murder investigation was launched Friday after Widdecombe was found dead at her home on Thursday in Haytor, on the edge of Dartmoor National Park in southwest England, according to police.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 78-year-old former Conservative member of parliament had “sustained serious injuries,” police said.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, British police arrested a 28-year-old man in South Yorkshire in northern England, more than 200 miles from where Widdecombe was found dead.<\/p>\n

The suspect was originally arrested on suspicion of murder. He has been rearrested on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, Counter Terrorism Policing South East said.<\/p>\n

Widdecombe served as a lawmaker from 1987 to 2010. She was known for socially conservative views opposing abortion and any expansion of LGBTQ+ rights.<\/p>\n

She found fame after leaving Parliament as a contestant on the “Strictly Come Dancing” and “Celebrity Big Brother” reality television shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Widdecombe later joined the Brexit Party<\/a> and became a spokeswoman for the anti-immigration Reform UK party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson<\/a> called her a “heroic Brexiteer and a great speaker who could move Tory audiences to such ecstasy that she was a very hard act to follow.”<\/p>\n

\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n

contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

\n Go deeper with The Free Press\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British counterterrorism police have taken over the investigation into the death of former politician Ann Widdecombe, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[8,2036,9,7,347],"class_list":["post-52224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-headlines","tag-murder","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116914331598451205","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}