Police in the U.K. have arrested a second suspect in connection with the murder of prominent pro-life Catholic politician Ann Widdecombe, after releasing the man the man they arrested late last week.
Police said they arrested a 28-year-old man in South Yorkshire – more than 200 miles from the village in the English southwest where Widdecombe was found dead – on suspicion of murder around 9pm U.K. time on Saturday.
“The suspect, who is a white British national, is now in police custody,” a police spokesman told journalists.
The statement from police in Devon and Cornwall, whose detectives are leading the investigation, said counter-terrorism and South Yorkshire units “carried out the arrest on behalf of Devon and Cornwall,” but also said authorities do not suspect terror as a motive.
“At this point,” the police statement said, “there is still no information to suggest this is a terrorism-related incident, and at this point, we are not looking for anyone else in connection with this murder.”
Widdecombe was found dead at her home in Haytor, Devon, shortly before noon on Thursday. Police believe she had been attacked the previous day, almost 24 hours before they discovered her body.
Widdecombe was a well-known political figure in the UK, spending 23 years as a Member of Parliament for Maidstone in Kent for the Conservatives, from 1987 to 2010.
After leaving parliament, she appeared on TV shows Strictly Come Dancing in 2010 and Celebrity Big Brother in 2018.
She also published several popular novels and was a columnist for the Daily Express.
Widdecombe was born in 1947 in Bath and never married. She held two undergraduate degrees, one from the University of Birmingham and the other from Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford University.
She was received into the Catholic Church in 1993, following the Anglican Church’s decision to ordain women, and was an outspoken advocate for Church teaching, especially on life issues.
Widdecombe was born into an evangelical family but was educated at the Catholic La Sainte Union Convent School in Bath.
“I know the Evangelical position is there is a given moment of conversion,” she once told the U.K. Premier Christianity magazine, “but I think Christianity can be something that develops.”
“It’s far more subtle,” she said.
Speaking Friday, health secretary James Murray said of Widdecombe “I can’t say I always agreed with her views, but she was such a part of our politics.”
“[E]veryone can recognise the contribution that she made to politics,” the Labour minister added to Times Radio.
*Fionn Shiner contributed to this report
