Man arrested after death of former UK minister Ann Widdecombe

Police arrested a 26-year-old man on suspicion of murder after Ann Widdecombe was found dead at her home on Dartmoor in Devon. Devon and Cornwall Police said the investigation began after officers were called by the ambulance service to an address in Haytor at about 11:40am on Thursday 9 July 2026.

The force said the suspect, described as a white British national, was arrested in Newton Abbot on Friday 10 July 2026 and remains in custody. Detectives from Devon and Cornwall Police are leading the case, which was opened after Widdecombe’s death was treated as suspicious.

Widdecombe was 78. For decades she was one of the most recognisable figures on the British right, serving as a Conservative MP from 1987 to 2010 for Maidstone and later Maidstone and The Weald. She also held ministerial posts in John Major’s government, including a Home Office role with responsibility for prisons, before later becoming associated with Reform UK.

Her profile extended well beyond Westminster. Widdecombe became familiar to television audiences through appearances that included Strictly Come Dancing, giving her a public reach that few former MPs matched. That combination of long parliamentary service, ministerial office and national television exposure has made the circumstances of her death a matter of wide attention across Britain.

Police have not released further details about how Widdecombe died, but reports said she had sustained serious injuries before the murder inquiry was launched. The address in Haytor, on the edge of Dartmoor, sits in a part of Devon where serious crime is unusual, adding to the prominence of a case involving a former cabinet minister, a long-serving MP and a figure who remained active in public life for many years after leaving Parliament.