LONDON: UK police Tuesday said the murder of veteran right-wing politician Ann Widdecombe was a “targeted attack,” as a 28-year-old man remained under arrest on suspicion of “terrorism” and murder.
“It is clear that this was a targeted attack,” head of Counter Terrorism Policing Laurence Taylor told reporters about the killing of the 78-year-old in her home last week, adding that officers were pursuing “multiple lines of inquiry.”
Widdecombe, a spokesperson for the hard-right Reform UK party and a former Conservative minister, was found dead in her home in Devon, southwest England on Thursday.
Counter-terrorism police took over the investigation on Monday as a 28-year-old white British man was detained on suspicion of “commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism” as well as suspicion of murder.
The man was first arrested on the weekend in Yorkshire in northern England, about 300 miles (480 km) from Widdecombe’s home on suspicion of murder, before being re-arrested as a terrorism suspect.
