U.K. counterterrorism police now leading murder probe of ex-MP Ann Widdecombe

british people upcountry government minister Shabana Mahmood said on mon that the top police agency responsible for investigating and prosecuting terrorism in the U.K. Is now heading the probe into the killing of longtime MP Ann Widdecombe.

Mahmood's announcement was a significant development given that for multiple days, police have said they had no information to suggest a political motivation or terrorism element related to the July 8 homicide of the 78-year-old in Haytor, Devon.

"We now have new information and evidence that means Counter Terrorism Policing is now leading the investigation," said Laurence Taylor, head of National Counter Terrorism Policing.

Taylor's statement cautioned that the agency is "pursuing multiple lines of inquiry to establish the motivation for this attack," and no one has been charged yet in Widdecombe's killing.

The possibility that the homicide of a British political figure is being led by top counterterrorism officials for the third time in a decade will likely lead to hard questions about the security of parliamentarians.

Here's a closer look at the case up until this point.

After working in public and private sector positions and losing in two previous federal elections, Widdecombe became a Conservative MP in the 1987 election. Representing Maidstone and Weald, she held ministerial posts in John Major's government in the 1990s until Major was defeated in the 1997 election.

Widdecome stayed on as a Conservative MP but opted not to run in the May 2010 election. For several years, she was largely out of the political fray but maintained a profile, appearing on Strictly Come Dancing in late 2010 and finishing as runner-up on the U.K. Version of Celebrity Big Brother in 2017.

Widdecombe had already been known as a pugnacious politician with socially conservative views, opposing abortion in most cases and the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights. Widdecombe said she converted to Catholicism partly in protest at the Church of England's ordination of women as priests.

She would eventually return to politics, serving as a member of European Parliament for the Brexit Party and then joining Nigel Farage's Reform UK Party in 2023, serving as the party's spokesperson on immigration.

Widdecombe is believed to have been killed just after noon last Wednesday. She made a virtual appearance on a political talk show after 8 a.m. But failed to appear for a similar booking that afternoon with Channel 5, after reportedly making contact with a member of that channel's production staff about the appearance shortly after 12 p.m.

Police and paramedics discovered her body early the next day in her home in the tiny village of Haytor on the edge of Dartmoor National Park. The residence is located in the county of Devon, which, with a population of over 1.25 million, usually sees fewer than 15 homicides per year.

Police said she has suffered "serious injuries," but have not detailed the suspected manner of death, or if a weapon was involved.

On Friday, Devon and Cornwall Police announced the arrest of a 26-year-old man, but he was released the following day.

A new suspect, who has not been named because he hasn't been charged, was arrested Saturday night in South Yorkshire county in northern England, more than 320 kilometres from Haytor. He has been described as 28 years old, and a Caucasian male.

In light of the new information they've received, the man has been re-arrested, which allows authorities to start a new 96-hour clock before a charge has to be made. The man is now in custody on suspicion of murder and on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Media outlets obtained CCTV footage from Wednesday morning in Yorkshire of a man wearing shorts with a long object sticking out of the left pocket. He then enters a red vehicle.

Widdecombe's residence was featured on a 2022 episode of Celebrity Yorkshire Auction House that reportedly re-aired on July 2 on Discovery+, but it's not clear at this point if that broadcast has any bearing on the investigation or is just an eerie coincidence.

Shock and sorrow over Widdecombe's killing crossed party lines late last week. But as the days passed, the conversation is also including the subject of security, given recent history.

Just this year, an independent review was announced into the failures of authorities to locate, and possibly deport, the man who killed Conservative MP Sir David Amess in October 2021. The perpetrator was an Islamic State sympathizer who had been flagged years earlier by intelligence agencies for possible radicalization.

ISIS supporter found guilty of killing British lawmaker Amess

Amess, 69, was stabbed 21 times at a church while meeting with constituents.

Jo Cox, a Labour MP for just over a year, was killed as she arrived for a constituency meeting in June 2016, while a 77-year-old man who was wounded as he tried to intervene. Witnesses at trial said the perpetrator, an unemployed gardener, shouted "Britain first" during his attack.

Cox, a 41-year-old mother of two young children, was stabbed 15 times and shot in the head and chest by a .22-calibre hunting rifle that had been reported stolen about a year earlier.

Prosecutors said the gunman's home and computer history were rife with Nazi literature and memorabilia and antisemitic material. The head of the special crime and counterterrorism in the prosecutor's office said the crimes "were nothing less than acts of terrorism" to advance a "twisted ideology."

The killers of Amess and Cox are serving life sentences. Their deaths were unusually personal — the last British MP murdered was in 1990, one of a handful of legislator deaths related to bombings carried out during the Northern Ireland Troubles beginning in the 1970s.

Mahmood referenced the Cox and Amess deaths while addressing Parliament on the latest in the investigation on Monday.

"Politics is a calling for those of us here and it should not be a dangerous one. And so it is incumbent on the House [of Commons] and the government to work together to protect those who choose to serve," she said.

Cox's murder was seen as a game-changer in terms of altering the nature of security around British legislators, MP John Milne wrote on Monday in an opinion piece for a local newspaper.

"Following Ann's murder, further increases in security are being considered," said Milne. "But personally, I never want to reach the point when I can't meet constituents except under tightly controlled situations."

However, Milne admitted that threats to MPs have risen sharply since 2019, expressing the belief that it's "actively putting off candidates" from entering or staying in politics.

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