{"id":1084085,"date":"2026-07-12T06:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T06:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1084085\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T06:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T06:55:18","slug":"ann-widdecombe-death-man-28-arrested-on-suspicion-of-murder-in-south-yorkshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1084085\/","title":{"rendered":"Ann Widdecombe death: Man, 28, arrested on suspicion of murder in South Yorkshire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the death of Ann Widdecombe.\n <\/p>\n

The 78-year-old was found dead at her home in Haytor, on the edge of Dartmoor, at around 11.40am on Thursday.<\/p>\n

It was revealed on Saturday morning that police believe the former Conservative minister<\/strong> was attacked at around 12.30pm the day before.<\/p>\n

Devon and Cornwall Police said in a statement later on Saturday: “We can confirm that a 28-year-old man was arrested at an address in the South Yorkshire area this evening (July 11) on suspicion of the murder of Ann Widdecombe.<\/p>\n

“The suspect, who is a white British national, is now in police custody.”<\/p>\n

The force said that it was supported by Counter Terrorism Policing North East, while South Yorkshire<\/strong> Police carried out the arrest, but added there is “still no information to suggest that this is a terrorism-related incident”.<\/p>\n

Ms Widdecombe served as a Conservative<\/strong> MP from 1987 to 2010.<\/p>\n

She then returned to frontline politics as a prominent voice in the Vote Leave campaign ahead of the 2016 EU referendum, before joining the Brexit Party in 2019, serving as a Member of the European Parliament.<\/p>\n

Ms Widdecombe joined Reform UK<\/strong> in 2023, and became the party’s immigration and justice spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Reform MPs given extra security<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nigel Farage visited Devon<\/strong> to lay a wreath for Ms Widdecombe on Saturday as it was confirmed Reform MPs have been given 24-hour security, paid for by the party, for fear of similar attacks.<\/p>\n

Mr Farage said in a tribute on Friday that Ms Widdecombe’s death was “a terrible reflection on modern Britain”.<\/p>\n

“And I do fear that for anybody in public life, or especially the political space, things have become even more dangerous to them,” he added.<\/p>\n

Widdecombe’s missed TV appearance <\/strong><\/p>\n

As the police piece together the timeline of Ms Widdecombe’s death, it was revealed on Saturday that the former MP had missed a planned TV interview on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The 78-year-old appeared on Mark Dolan’s TalkTV programme earlier in the day, and was due to feature on Matt Allwright’s Channel 5 show.<\/p>\n

More from Sky News:
Tributes pour in for Dermot Murnaghan<\/strong>
US senator and Trump ally dies<\/strong><\/p>\n

WhatsApp messages published by ITV appear to show Ms Widdecombe stopped responding to messages from a producer on the programme around the time police believe the attack took place.<\/p>\n

She last sent a message at 12.19pm, acknowledging she had received a Zoom link, but did not respond when she was asked to join the call at 12.48pm.<\/p>\n

\n \"Sky\n <\/p>\n

\n (c) Sky News 2026: Ann Widdecombe death: Man, 28, arrested on suspicion of murder in South Yorkshire<\/a>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the death of Ann Widdecombe. The 78-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8817],"tags":[19000,19007,19024,748,19003,19010,19026,393,920,19001,19023,4884,19002,19009,19025,16785,19004,19011,19027,9440,19015,19017,19014,19016,19018,19012,19013,18998,19008,19005,19021,1620,16,15,8423,18999,19006,19022,19019,19020],"class_list":["post-1084085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sheffield","tag-bridlington","tag-bridlington-news","tag-bridlington-weather","tag-britain","tag-driffield","tag-driffield-news","tag-driffield-weather","tag-england","tag-events","tag-filey","tag-filey-weather","tag-great-britain","tag-hornsea","tag-hornsea-news","tag-hornsea-weather","tag-local-radio","tag-pickering","tag-pickering-news","tag-pickering-weather","tag-radio","tag-radio-bridlington","tag-radio-driffield","tag-radio-filey","tag-radio-hornsea","tag-radio-pickering","tag-radio-scarborough","tag-radio-whitby","tag-scarborough","tag-scarborough-evening-news","tag-scarborough-news","tag-scarborough-weather","tag-sheffield","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-whats-on","tag-whitby","tag-whitby-news","tag-whitby-weather","tag-yorkshire-coast","tag-yorkshire-coast-radio"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1084085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1084085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1084085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1084085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}