Former politician and reality TV contestant Anne Widdicombe was killed in a “targeted attack”, British counter-terrorism police said on Tuesday, although the motive remains under investigation.
A 28-year-old man, arrested on suspicion of murder and terrorism offences, remains in custody on an extended arrest warrant under the Terrorism Act which allows police to question him for up to a further week.
“This was clearly a targeted attack,” Lawrence Taylor, head of the National Counter-Terrorism Police, told reporters. “We are still working to understand the extent of any planning or preparation and the motivation behind this attack.”
The death of Widdicombe, 78, a former member of Parliament, shocked Britain’s political establishment, where she had long been known for her outspoken socially conservative views opposing abortion and expanding LGBT rights.
Counter-terrorism police took over the investigation on Monday after new evidence was discovered. Devon and Cornwall Police were criticized for originally saying the killing was not believed to be a terrorism-related crime and there was no suggestion it was politically motivated.
Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez defended her agency on Tuesday, saying new information often changes the nature of a fast-paced investigation.
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Police believe Widdecombe was attacked on Wednesday shortly after noon. She did not show up for a scheduled television interview about an hour later and was found dead the next day in her isolated country home in a village in southwest England.
The police did not reveal the cause of death, saying only that she suffered “serious injuries.” Taylor described it as a “brutal attack on a 78-year-old woman in her home.”
The suspect was arrested on Saturday in the county of South Yorkshire in northern England, more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the village of Hightower on the edge of Dartmoor National Park, where Widdecombe died.
Police conducted extensive searches at his home, and Taylor said they found evidence of planning, but he refused to provide details.
The man was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of murder, but additional evidence was found during his detention, prompting police to re-arrest him on suspicion of committing, preparing or inciting terrorist acts.
The suspect has not been named because no charges have been brought against him.
Widdecombe was a Member of the House of Commons from 1987 to 2010, serving in positions including Minister of Prisons in Prime Minister John Major’s Conservative government in the 1990s.
She found fame after leaving Parliament as a contestant on reality TV shows Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother.
She later joined the Brexit Party, and briefly served as a member of the European Parliament before Britain left the European Union in 2020. More recently, she joined the anti-immigration Reform UK party, and often appears in the media as a spokesperson.
The killing renewed politicians’ concerns about security, which has been tightened in the past decade after the killing of two sitting members of parliament. Labor MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed in 2016 by a right-wing extremist, and Conservative MP David Amis was stabbed in 2021 by an ISIS-inspired attacker.
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