Devon and Cornwall Police have launched a murder investigation into the death of former MP Ann Widdecombe, who was found dead at her home at Haytor on Dartmoor. She was 78. The Guardian

Officers were called to the address by the ambulance service at approximately 11:40am on Thursday, July 9, 2026. Widdecombe had sustained serious injuries, according to the force. Detectives from the Force Major Crime Investigation Team are leading the inquiry, with DCI Ilona Rosson named as senior investigating officer. Police have said they believe the person responsible is a white male, though no arrest has been announced. The Guardian

A cordon and road closures remain in place around the property while forensic teams examine the scene. Detectives are running house-to-house inquiries and reviewing CCTV footage across the Haytor area, standard procedure for a rural crime scene where witness sightings and vehicle movements can be sparse and slow to surface. Widdecombe's next-of-kin have been informed and are being supported by specially trained family liaison officers, the force said. The Guardian

Widdecombe's political career spanned more than three decades and three parties. She sat as Conservative MP for Maidstone, later Maidstone and the Weald, from 1987 to 2010, rising to Shadow Home Secretary under Iain Duncan Smith and becoming one of the most recognisable, and combative, voices of the Thatcher-to-Cameron-era Tory right. She left Westminster in 2010 but not public life: a stint on Strictly Come Dancing cemented a media profile that outlasted her front-bench career. The Guardian

Her post-Commons political trajectory tracked the fracturing of the British right over Europe. She joined Nigel Farage's Brexit Party in 2019, becoming a Member of the European Parliament for South West England that year, a seat she held until Britain's departure from the EU in 2020 rendered the position moot. She remained aligned with the party's successor, Reform UK, in the years since. The Guardian

The location matters to how this investigation will unfold. Dartmoor's high moorland and dispersed settlements make for a policing environment very different from an urban crime scene: fewer passive witnesses, less ambient CCTV, and a forensic search area shaped by open terrain rather than street grids. That is likely why Devon and Cornwall Police have moved quickly to appeal for house-to-house cooperation and dashcam or doorbell footage rather than relying on existing camera networks.

The description of a suspect as a white male, offered without further detail on age or the nature of any connection to Widdecombe, is characteristic of an early-stage major crime inquiry: enough to shape public appeals, not enough to indicate whether investigators are looking at a targeted attack, a domestic circumstance, or a stranger crime. Police have not said whether they are seeking a specific individual or working from a description gathered at the scene.

Reaction from Westminster and Reform UK had not been formally recorded in the initial reporting, though Widdecombe's decades in front-line politics, and her recent visibility as a Reform figure, mean tributes and statements are likely to follow as the party and former colleagues respond to a case that touches a politician still active in public debate up to her death. The force has asked anyone with information, including dashcam footage from the Haytor area around the time of the 999 call, to come forward as the investigation continues.