The alleged murder case involving the anti-LGBTQ Brexit politician Ann Widdecombe is now being taken over by the counterterrorism police. After the arrest of a 28-year-old man over the weekend, investigators said that “new information and evidence” had emerged. Further details were not released on Monday; initially, in Britain’s high-profile case, a terrorist motive had not been suspected.
“Based on new information and evidence, the Anti-Terror Police are now leading the investigation into the horrific murder of Ann Widdecombe,” wrote British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on the platform X. “The police are pursuing several lines of inquiry to determine the motive behind this attack.” The suspect is said to be a Briton.
Ann Widdecombe was fearless and forthright. She was a devoted public servant, the likes of whom we will rarely, if ever, see again.
The circumstances of Ann’s murder are extremely distressing. The investigation is now being led by @TerrorismPolice. The police have cautioned pic.twitter.com/zVie378NTmShabana Mahmood MP (@ShabanaMahmood) July 13, 2026
The 78-year-old Widdecombe was found dead last Thursday at her home on Dartmoor in Devon (TheColu.mn reported). Her body showed severe injuries. Consequently, a murder investigation was opened.
Britain’s most anti-queer politician
Widdecombe spent years as a Conservative Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons and later served as a staunch advocate of Brexit as a Member of the European Parliament for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party. She later became a spokesperson for the successor party Reform UK.
The politician who converted to Catholicism held ultraconservative views and was long regarded as one of the most anti-queer voices in British politics. As a Tory MP between 1987 and 2010, she campaigned to retain the so-called Section 28 anti-homosexuality law and, in interviews, argued that homosexuality could not be an “equal lifestyle.” In 2019, in an interview, she suggested that lesbians and gay men could potentially be “healed” (TheColu.mn reported). She denied trans people the right to self-determination.
Even on British entertainment television, the pro-death-penalty advocate was no stranger: Widdecombe appeared on “Celebrity Big Brother” for example. On the show, she presented herself as a friendly grandmother and refrained from homophobic outbursts. In the end, she was voted into second place by the audience—finishing behind a drag queen (TheColu.mn reported).
