Anti-terrorist police investigate the death of UK politician Widdecombe | Political Affairs

A 28-year-old man has also been arrested on suspicion of committing, planning or initiating terrorist acts.

Anti-terrorist police are involved in the investigation kill of the former British populist politician Ann Widdecombe.

The announcement of the change was made on Monday, with police saying they were following “new information and evidence”.

This represents a rapid evolution. Devon and Cornwall Police said last week that there was no evidence that his death was linked to crime or politics. Widdecombe was a former Conservative Party member of parliament and cabinet minister who defected to the Reform Party.

A 28-year-old white British man has also been arrested on suspicion of committing, planning or initiating terrorist acts, police said. He was the same person before to be arrested thinking of killing them on Saturday.

“We now have new information and evidence which means that Counter Terrorism Policing is now leading the investigation,” said Laurence Taylor, head of National Counterterrorism Policing. “We are looking into several avenues of investigation to find the cause of this attack.”

The killing of the 78-year-old shocked British politics and raised concerns about the safety of elected officials. Two more British MPs have been killed in the last ten years.

A controversial figure for his conservative views, including opposition to abortion and the reinstatement of the death penalty, Widdecombe first came to prominence in the 1990s when he served in the ranks of the Conservative Party.

Also a regular on television, he recently served as a spokesman for Reform. The party is said to have tightened its security in response to his death, offering security to MPs for 24 hours.

In a letter on X, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she spoke to the head of the anti-terrorist police on Monday morning and will change the MPs on Monday afternoon.

Widdecombe was found dead at his home in Devon in southwest England on Thursday, suffering from severe injuries. Police have not said what killed him, but they believe he was attacked around 12:30pm on Wednesday.

The man was arrested about 320 kilometers (200 miles) from where the crime took place in South Yorkshire. He was not charged.

UK Reform board member Gawain Towler told reporters on Monday that the police had tried to “pause the public’s mind” by initially saying there was “nothing to suggest” the alleged killing was politically motivated.