British Catholic politician’s death investigated as murder, police say

Ann Widdecombe, who converted to the Catholic faith in 1993, was known for advocating conservative and pro-life positions in the British House of Commons.

Police are conducting a murder investigation into the death of long-serving British Catholic politician Ann Widdecombe, authorities said on July 10, one day after her death at 78.

The long-serving British politician, who converted to Catholicism in the early 1990s, was found dead on July 9 at her home in Dartmoor in southwestern England.

Initial reports suggested she may have died from a fall in her home. But in a statement on July 10 Devon and Cornwall Police said they had launched a murder investigation into her death.

Police “are conducting extensive enquiries into the circumstances surrounding Miss Widdecombe’s death,” the statement said, adding that investigators were performing forensic examinations of the purported crime scene.

“Our murder enquiry is in its early stages but moving at a significant pace,” Chief Inspector Ilona Rosson said in the statement. “We are deploying all of the necessary resources to find out exactly what has happened and to locate the person responsible, who we believe to be a white male.”

The police said later on July 10 that a 26-year-old male suspect had been arrested as part of the investigation and was in police custody. The event was not being treated as terrorism, authorities said.

A member of the U.K.’s Conservative Party, Widdecombe served in various government roles for decades, including as a member of Parliament and as prisons minister under Prime Minister John Major.

She famously converted to Catholicism in 1993 after the Church of England began ordaining women. In an interview with The New Statesman, she described the English church as “a huge bundle of straw,” with women’s ordination “the last straw.”

“For years I had been disillusioned by the Church of Englandʼs compromising on everything. The Catholic Church doesnʼt care if something is unpopular,” she told the outlet.

Throughout her life as a Catholic she was a vocal defender of the Church and its teachings, especially on the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage.

She herself never married; she lived with her widowed mother, Rita, in London until 2007 when her mother died at the age of 95.

In one of her last interviews before her death, she told EWTN News’ Colm Flynn in September 2025 that the “great thing about Catholicism is it doesn’t compromise.”

“You know, something’s either true or it’s false. It’s right or it’s wrong. It’s sin or it’s not,” she told Flynn. “[In the Catholic Church] there is none of the endless fudging that you got with the Anglican Church.”

She argued that the Church is “appealing to young people” in the modern era, pointing to an uptick of interest and an increase in the sale of Bibles. She also cited high levels of religious devotion in the Global South, including in Africa.

“We live in a surprisingly optimistic time,” she said.

This story was updated at 1:30 p.m. ET on July 10, 2026, with news of the arrest of a suspect in Ann Widdecombe’s murder.

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