A 26-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murdering British politician Ann Widdecombe has been released and is no longer part of the investigation, UK police have said.
Widdecombe, 78, a spokesperson for right-wing populist party Reform UK and a former Conservative minister, was found dead in her home in rural southwest England on Thursday after sustaining serious injuries.
Police arrested a white male suspect in the market town of Newton Abbot, 11 miles from Widdecombe’s home, on Friday, but he has since been released.
UK police said the murder enquiry was still in its “early stages,” but was “moving at a significant pace,” in a statement.
The incident is not being treated as terrorism and there is no suggestion it was politically motivated, police said.
British politicians from across the political spectrum expressed shock at the circumstances of Widdecombe’s death.
Andy Burnham, the frontrunner to replace Keir Starmer as British Prime Minister, said he hoped her killer was swiftly brought to justice.
“This is terrible news. Ann Widdecombe brought conviction, wit and personality to public life over many years,” he added in a statement on X.
Kemi Badenoch, leader of the UK Conservative party, said the news had stunned her.
“It’s one thing when someone dies, but to know that they’ve been murdered in this horrible way is just awful,” she said.
The Archbishop of Canterbury said she was “deeply shocked and saddened,” to hear of the circumstances of Widdecombe’s death.
Meanwhile, UK television presenter Dan Walker revealed Widdecombe was due to appear on his 5 Daytime show on Wednesday afternoon but stopped replying to messages and didn’t turn up.
Walker said he had passed on the information to police.
Widdecombe became a household name through her 23 year career as a Conservative, MP where she was unafraid to voice her traditional views on moral issues.
Widdecombe was outspoken in defending her traditional views. During her parliamentary career, she opposed abortion and the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights. As Shadow Home Secretary between 1999 and 2001, she advocated a "zero tolerance" approach to illegal drugs.
In 1996, while serving as prisons minister in the Conservative government of John Major, she defended a policy of shackling pregnant inmates to their hospital beds.
After standing down as MP for Maidstone in south-east England in 2010, Widdecombe reinvented herself as a national treasure through her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing. Despite consistently low scores from the judges, she was voted through by the public to the quarter-finals.
A prominent Eurosceptic and Vote Leave campaigner, Widdecombe joined Farage's right-wing populist party, Reform UK, in 2023 to serve as its Immigration and Justice Spokesperson. She also campaigned for the party's candidates during the U.K.'s 2024 general election.
She was the runner-up in the 2018 series of Celebrity Big Brother, losing to Australian drag queen Courtney Act, who repeatedly challenged Widdecombe on her views on LGBTQ+ rights during the programme.
Widdecombe's Christian faith was central to her life. She converted to Roman Catholicism in 1993 after the Church of England decided to ordain women as priests.
She never married and said she was "proud" to call herself a spinster, professing no interest in sex.
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