LONDON – Just two days after taking a 26-year-old man into custody in connection with the fatal killing of veteran British politician and media personality Ann Widdecombe, Devon and Cornwall Police announced Saturday that the individual has been released from custody and is no longer a target of the investigation.
The 78-year-old Widdecombe, whose decades-long career spanned frontline British politics and mainstream reality television, was discovered dead Thursday at her secluded rural property located on the outskirts of Dartmoor National Park in southwest England. Investigators took the 26-year-old suspect into custody a day later, during a raid in a nearby town just a few miles from Widdecombe’s home.
In an official statement following the suspect’s release, the police force emphasized that the investigation into Widdecombe’s death remains active. “Detectives continue to carry out numerous enquiries as part of the ongoing investigation and we remain committed to establishing the full circumstances surrounding the incident,” the statement read.
Early investigative assessments have already ruled out two key potential motives: law enforcement have confirmed the killing is not believed to be an act of terrorism, and there is no current evidence to suggest the attack was politically motivated.
Widdecombe’s death has sent ripples of shock across the United Kingdom’s political landscape, where she established herself as one of the Conservative Party’s most prominent and unapologetic right-wing voices over a generation. She served as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1987 to 2010, and held a cabinet position as Prisons Minister during Prime Minister John Major’s Conservative administration in the 1990s.
After stepping down from parliamentary office, Widdecombe reinvented her public profile, finding new mainstream fame as a contestant on two hit UK reality TV shows: *Strictly Come Dancing* and *Celebrity Big Brother*. She never left politics entirely, however, later joining the pro-Brexit Brexit Party before ultimately becoming a spokesperson for Reform UK, the right-wing anti-immigration political party.