Detectives piece together Widdecombe’s last morning as murder hunt continues

The hunt for Ann Widdecombe’s suspected killer restarted yesterday after a young man was released without charge and police revealed that the former Tory minister’s body had lain undiscovered for nearly 24 hours.

Widdecombe, 78, is thought to have suffered a head wound and was found at home in the Dartmoor hamlet of Haytor Vale, Devon, a day after failing to respond to messages from a researcher for Channel 5.

The bungalow she retired to in 2010 was taped off yesterday evening and a heavy police presence remained in the area.

Widdecombe, who was Reform UK’s spokesperson for immigration and justice, was found dead around 11.40am on Thursday having sustained “serious injuries”, according to detectives.

Devon and Cornwall Police announced the arrest of a 26-year-old man on Friday evening but released him with no further action early yesterday. They confirmed they were still looking for a white male but gave no further description. They did not say how Widdecombe died or what injuries she suffered.

A researcher from Channel 5’s Matt Allwright’s current affairs show, who had been setting up an interview with Widdecombe, reportedly received a final message from her at 12.19pm on Wednesday. Police believe she was attacked at 12.30pm. According to ITV, the researcher messaged again at 12.48pm but received no reply.

Widdecombe had appeared on Talk TV earlier in the day, backing Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, in the upcoming Clacton-on-Sea byelection and saying she had “very little trust now in parliamentary processes”.

Farage travelled to Haytor Vale yesterday to lay flowers near her bungalow, which she had named “Widdecombe’s Rest”. He told reporters a “car went on to the drive around 12.25, 12.30 on Wednesday”, without saying where the information had come from. Police have not made any appeals about a car.

Farage dismissed the idea that the killing might have been a burglary gone wrong and said: “From what I can make out, this was premeditated murder.” He did not offer any evidence for this claim.

Police have said the case is not being treated as terrorism and there is no evidence to suggest a political motive. Farage said Reform were trying to support the police “in every way” and the party had “teams” sifting through emails looking for threats or abuse aimed at Widdecombe.

Around noon yesterday Widdecombe’s longterm driver Peter Horrell laid flowers near her home. “She was a great lady, very kind, a privilege to take in a car,” he said. “I liked her because if you asked her a question, you’d get an answer, no mucking about.”

Widdecombe served as Conservative MP for Maidstone, Kent, from 1987 to 2010, and was  prisons minister under John Major before becoming one of the party’s most prominent backbenchers.

She came out of retirement in 2019 to join Farage’s Brexit party, serving as a member of the European Parliament until the UK’s departure from the EU in 2020, while remaining a high-profile broadcaster and television personality. She participated in BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 and later in Celebrity Big Brother. Fingertip searches of the area continued with door-to-door enquiries alongside appeals for CCTV, doorbell and dashcam footage. Reports suggested that an assistant, gardener or carer found her dead, though people from the area who knew her pointed out she was active, often seen around in a small blue car and appeared to have no need of a carer.

Speaking about the choice of Widdecombe’s Rest as the name for her home, which she once said she bought using money from her appearance on Strictly, she told a local paper: “A lot of people think it means rest, as in having a rest, but what it actually means is the rest of Widdecombe’s life.”

Photographs by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images