Ann Widdecombe murder investigation taken over by counter-terror police – The Latest
episodePreviously titled “Counter-terror police take over Ann Widdecombe murder investigation – The Latest” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Guardian.
It looked initially like this was not viewed as a terror offence, but that's all shifted. It is a messy picture.
How did news of Ann Widdecombe’s death first break and who is reporting it?
It is one of these things where this crime story, which needs to be reported very responsibly and straightforwardly, comes into collision with a very opinion-driven news and political cycle. Farage, as he says, one thing I wouldn't speculate about is the thing which he then goes on to speculate.
From The Guardian's Today In Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hoth. On Friday, we had the very shocking news that Anne Widdicombe, the former Tory MP, junior minister and now Reform UK spokesperson, as was, had been murdered at her home in Devon. Archie Bland, you're our head of national news. This has now escalated, hasn't it? We've had the announcement that this has been handed from Devon Police, where she lived, to Counter Terror Police, who are now taking this on. What do we know about that?
That's right. So we know that in the first place, this was under investigation by counter-terror police. And the conclusion was reached at that stage that there did not appear to be a terrorist motive in this case. And it was passed back to the conventional police. But the situation has evolved since then. A second suspect, not the man who was originally arrested, has now been arrested and the case is being investigated by counter-terror police specifically. He's also been arrested on suspicion of terror offences as well as the initial murder suspicion that has now been drawn into that arena more generally as well. So it looked initially like this was not viewed as a terror offence, but that's all shifted.
So that suggests that something has been uncovered to do with potential motive. Do we know anything about that? What have the police said at this stage?
So what we can say is what would typically be the case, which is that if somebody appears to be ideologically motivated, and if they appear to be motivated with an intention of influencing or intimidating politicians or the public in their action, then that can be classed as a terrorist offence. But we can't say specifically what the evidence is in this case that has drawn the police to that conclusion, at least at this stage.
Okay. What can we say about the suspect at this stage?
So we know that he's 28 years old and that he was arrested at an address in Rotherham.
Which is very far from Devon, we should say. Absolutely. A long drive, which has been reported in the press.
And it was reported that neighbours saw on the day of Anne Widdicombe's death, him getting into a red car and that he had some kind of pole that he took with him on that journey. But again, because of the status of the investigation and the fact that we're awaiting a charging decision, we still don't have that much that we can say at this point.
Right, so let's backtrack a little bit because on Friday morning, I was listening to the morning radio at home and there was a sort of fairly standard political obit to Anne Widdicombe, you know, who died in sudden unexpected circumstances at the age of 78, but no suggestion at that time that there was any... suspicious foul play, but it became clear by Friday afternoon that this was being treated as a murder investigation, which I think was met with great shock in the Guardian newsroom. The coverage over the weekend has felt a little messy, I think we can say, in that there has been lots of speculation in the media about the circumstances, things that ordinarily would not be published with a live investigation at play with multiple police forces and
And yet these official lines from the police coming out sort of urging caution and saying that this is both upsetting to her family and also disruptive to the investigation.
Yeah, and it is a messy picture, to be sure. I mean, we have a couple of different things going on at the same time. One is a evolving picture of the police investigation, and it is relatively unusual, we should say, for a terrorist motivation to appear to have been ruled out only for the case to ultimately return to the hands of counter-terror police.
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