The uncle of Anne Widdecombe’s suspect has been jailed for saying he ‘almost fell through the floor’.

The uncle of a man arrested on suspicion of murdering Anne Widdecombe has told the BBC how he “almost collapsed on the floor” when he heard his nephew had been arrested.

“My legs went like jelly,” he said. “He’s the last person I’d think would do something like that.”

He lives near his nephew, though he hasn’t really seen him in 10 years. He remembers him as a “quiet and no-nonsense boy”, “polite and polite” and “everything that a shy, young boy would be”.

Widdecombe, a 78-year-old former MP, died in 2011. She is believed to have been attacked on July 8 at her home in Hightower, Devon. Her body was found a day later, with severe injuries, police said.

A 28-year-old white British man was arrested in South Yorkshire on Saturday on suspicion of murder and on suspicion of planning or inciting acts of terrorism.

Counter-terrorism police said on Tuesday they believe she was killed in a “targeted attack” but are still working to determine the cause.

The man, who has not been named, told the BBC in Rotherham that his nephew lived with his father until his death a few months ago.

A woman who lives near the suspect said she doesn’t see her neighbor very often. “He used to take his dad shopping when he was alive, but he hasn’t been out much since,” Courtney Foster said.

She said a car left the property in Rotherham between 07:30 and 08:00 BST on Wednesday last week and returned at around 17:30 or 18:00.

She added: “I was surprised at the time. I thought, ‘Oh, the car is gone.’

His uncle said: “Things don’t add up…it takes some action to drive that way and back in a day. I pass the house almost every day and the car is there 99 times out of 100.”

Tributes have been pouring in for Widdecombe since the day her death was announced, but the news that a murder investigation has been launched has sparked widespread debate about the safety of MPs.

She served as Conservative MP for Maidstone in Kent for 23 years and served as Home Office and Employment Minister under John Major between 1994 and 1997.

After leaving Parliament, she appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 and Celebrity Big Brother in 2018.

Widdecombe became an MEP for the Brexit Party, representing South West England in the European Parliament between 2019 and 2020.

Additional reporting by Mallory Moench