The killing of former British politician Ann Widdecombe has been reclassified as a terrorist act, with counter-terrorism officers assuming control of the investigation after new evidence emerged, police said Monday.
Counter Terrorism Policing South East announced that the suspect, a 28-year-old previously held on murder suspicion, faced a new arrest on terrorism charges covering the commission, preparation, or instigation of such acts. Laurence Taylor, head of National Counter Terrorism Policing, said investigators were "pursuing multiple lines of inquiry to establish the motivation for this attack."
The body of Widdecombe, who was 78, was discovered at her home in Haytor, a small village situated where Dartmoor National Park meets the southwest English countryside. Authorities at Devon and Cornwall Police had originally characterized the killing as having no apparent terrorism connection and told the public there was nothing pointing to a political motive. The reclassification followed what Taylor described as "new information and evidence," according to the AP.
According to The Associated Press, officers took the 28-year-old into custody in South Yorkshire, a county in northern England situated roughly 200 miles from the scene of Widdecombe's death. A separate 26-year-old man, who had been detained close to where Widdecombe was found, was subsequently freed and eliminated as a suspect, according to NBC News.
Between 1987 and 2010, Widdecombe occupied a seat in the House of Commons, and during the 1990s she took on ministerial posts under Conservative Prime Minister John Major, including serving as prisons minister. After that she became a member of the Brexit Party and held a short-term seat in the European Parliament before Brexit took effect in 2020; in her final political chapter, she took on a public-facing role as a spokesperson for the anti-immigration Reform UK party.
Her death renewed concerns about the safety of British politicians. The killings echoed two politically charged murders from the previous decade, according to The Associated Press: Jo Cox, a Labour MP, was shot and stabbed in 2016 at the hands of a far-right attacker, while Conservative MP David Amess was fatally stabbed in 2021 by a man who had been radicalized by the Islamic State.
More on this story: Second man arrested in killing of former U.K. politician Ann Widdecombe
