Posted on 07/11/2026 8:15:41 PM PDT by Morgana
Ann Widdecombe, the former Conservative minister and outspoken pro-life advocate, was found dead with serious injuries at her home on Dartmoor on Thursday.
The suspicious death is leading Devon and Cornwall Police to launch a murder investigation.
Officers were called to the address in Haytor near Newton Abbot at around 11:40 a.m. Thursday after the ambulance service responded. The 78-year-old Widdecombe was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detective Chief Inspector Ilona Rosson said: “This is an extremely tragic incident and our thoughts are very much with the family and friends of Ann Widdecombe at this difficult time. Our murder enquiry is in its early stages but moving at a significant pace. We are deploying all of the necessary resources to find out exactly what has happened and to locate the person responsible who we believe to be a white male.”
A cordon remains in place while forensic teams examine the property. Police have increased their presence in the area, conducted house-to-house inquiries, and appealed for CCTV, doorbell, or dashcam footage from the Haytor Vale and Haytor area.
The investigation is being carried out under Operation Hunlen.
Widdecombe served as prisons minister under Prime Minister John Major before leaving Parliament. She later became a Member of the European Parliament for the Brexit Party and served as a spokeswoman for Reform UK.
She was known throughout her career for her firm moral convictions and willingness to challenge the political establishment and abortion.
During her long and distinguished career in Parliament, she was a leader in the public fight for protections for unborn babies at the beginning of life and the elderly and vulnerable towards the end of life.
As a patron of Right To Life UK for many years, her strong and consistent pro-life voting record serves as an example and aspiration for younger pro-life politicians entering the world of being a publicly pro-life politician, the group told LifeNews.
During her time in politics and after, she consistently voted in favour of greater protections for unborn babies and against attempts to legalise assisted suicide. As early as 1990, in a debate on the Abortion Act 1967, she argued that abortion should not be treated as any other medical intervention and that existing protections for unborn babies should not be eroded further.
In the same year, when debating amendments to the then Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, Widdecombe insisted that unborn babies not be left out of the discussion, arguing that, due to medical advances, the abortion limit should be lowered.
In another debate in the same year, Widdecombe raised concerns that an amendment to abortion legislation, allowing the Health Secretary to designate “a class of places” as suitable for abortions, would inadvertently pave the way for at-home abortions.
However, the author of the amendment, Robert Key MP, dismissed Widdecombe’s concerns and accused the then Conservative MP of speaking from “the whip issued by the pro-life group” and misleading Parliament.
The Health Secretary at the time, Kenneth Clarke, then assured MPs that the legislation was not intended to legalise home abortions and that abortions would only be “administered only in closely regulated circumstances under the supervision of a registered medical practitioner”.
Chris Whitehouse, a Right To Life UK Trustee, said: “For 40 years, Ann was to me a personal and family friend, a political mentor and a remarkable heroine of the pro-life cause. To have known her was a pleasure and a privilege, if sometimes a challenge. She was unflinching in her politics, constant in her friendships and steadfast in her defence of the principle of the right to life, both for the unborn and for those approaching the end of their lives”.
30 years later, Ann Widdecombe’s then-dismissed concerns have become a reality in the form of pills-by-post abortion, which, as of 2023, accounts for 72% of all abortions in England and Wales.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood described the circumstances as extremely distressing. “Ann’s dedication to public service was decades long, and she was a true servant of her constituents,” Mahmood said.
She added that the Home Office stands ready to support the police investigation and urged the public to avoid speculation.
Former Conservative minister Edwina Currie, a longtime acquaintance of Widdecombe, expressed shock at the news. “A frail 78-year-old lady, and they’re looking for a white male. God help us all,” Currie wrote on social media.
Widdecombe’s management company said it was “absolutely devastated by this news following a very traumatic and upsetting 24 hours” and appealed for anyone with information to contact police.
The murder inquiry remains in its early stages, with officers continuing to gather evidence and appeal for public assistance.
First elected as a Conservative MP for Maidstone in 1987, she held her seat until leaving the Commons in 2010, during which time she held two Ministerial positions, including Minister of State at the Home Office with responsibility for prisons and immigration. She was the only prison Minister to have personally visited every prison in England and Wales.
She returned to frontline politics in 2019 as a Member of the European Parliament until January 2020.
Good thing she’s dead, otherwise she’d be arrested. It’s the UK way of doing things.
I’m sure they’ll put their best people on it. /s
England is lost.
The first suspect, the police had no hesitation about calling him a white native Brit. Alot will be said if they cant be so quick to give a description on the next apprehension.
They’ll never arrest the person responsible for her death, even if they know who it is.
And now Lindsy Graham’s sudden death.
Update. There’s been an arrest...
https://news.sky.com/story/police-update-on-widdecombe-murder-investigation-13562741
No additional info so far.
Detectives say Ann Widdecombe’s alleged murder ‘not politically motivated’ as new details emerge
Note what's buried in the last sentence if the article...
...He said officers are "open-minded" about the motive.
I have confidence the Blokes (British) will make a good investigation. They'll probably send down investigators from Scotland Yard to the rural area, not too far from Land's End, where it happened.
Yeah - UKistan .....
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