British former MP Ann Widdecombe, one of the United Kingdom’s best-known political figures and a convert to Catholicism since 1993, has died at the age of 78 at her home in Haytor, in the English county of Devon. Devon and Cornwall Police have confirmed that they are treating her death as murder and have arrested a 26-year-old British man in connection with the case.
Emergency services attended Widdecombe’s residence around 11:40 a.m. on Thursday, 9 July, after receiving an alert from the ambulance service. On arrival, they found the former MP lifeless inside the property. According to the police, the body showed serious injuries, prompting the opening of a homicide investigation.
At a press conference held on Friday, Devon and Cornwall Police Deputy Chief Constable Matt Longman confirmed that the suspect was arrested during the afternoon at a residence in Newton Abbot, also in Devon.
Longman stated that, for the time being, the investigation is not being treated as a terrorism case and that there are no indications of a political motive. He added, however, that investigators are keeping all lines of inquiry open and that it is still too early to determine whether the arrested man knew the victim personally.
Police have cordoned off the property while forensic examinations continue and have appealed for public assistance to clarify the facts, setting up a dedicated channel for information.
More than two decades in the British Parliament
Ann Widdecombe spent much of her political career in the Conservative Party, for which she served as MP for Maidstone from 1987 to 2010. After leaving the House of Commons she appeared on various television programmes and, years later, returned to politics as a Brexit Party MEP, later incorporated into Reform UK, where she served as spokesperson on immigration and justice.
Following news of her death, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the news as “shocking” and refrained from speculating on possible motives while the investigation remains ongoing.
For her part, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch expressed her dismay at the incident and conveyed her condolences to the former MP’s family, describing the attack as “horrible”.
Her entry into the Catholic Church
Widdecombe joined the Catholic Church in 1993, after the Church of England approved the ordination of women to the priesthood. From then on she publicly defended various positions in line with Catholic teaching, especially on the defence of life.
In an interview given to EWTN in September 2025, she explained that one of the reasons that led her to convert was the doctrinal clarity she found in the Catholic Church. “The great advantage of Catholicism is that it makes no concessions: something is either true or false; it is right or wrong; it is a sin or it is not,” she said at the time.
The investigation into the circumstances of her death remains open and the authorities have not, for the moment, released further information about the possible motive for the crime or about any relationship that may have existed between the arrested man and the victim.