Ex-UK government minister Ann Widdecombe killed in targeted attack at home but motive still being probed: cops

Former politician and reality TV contestant Ann Widdecombe was killed in a “targeted attack,” though the motivation is still under investigation, British counterterror police said Tuesday.A 28-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder and terror crimes remains in custody on an extended detention warrant under the Terrorism Act that allows police to question him for up to another week.“It is clear that this was a targeted attack,” Laurence Taylor, head of National Counter Terrorism Policing told reporters.“We are still working to understand the extent of any planning or preparation, and the motivation that sits behind that attack.”The death of Widdecombe, 78, a former member of Parliament, shocked the British political establishment, where she was long known for blunt-spoken socially conservative views opposing abortion and the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights.Counterterror police took over the investigation Monday after new evidence was discovered.Devon and Cornwall Police have been criticized for originally saying the killing was not believed to be a terror-related crime and there was nothing to suggest it was politically motivated.Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez defended her agency Tuesday, saying new information often changes the nature of a fast-paced investigation.Police believe Widdecombe was attacked on Wednesday just past noon.She failed to show up for a scheduled TV interview about an hour later and was found dead the next day in her isolated rural home in a village in southwest England.Police did not disclose a cause of death, saying only that she had sustained “serious injuries.” Taylor called it a “brutal attack on a 78-year-old lady in her own home.”The suspect was arrested Saturday in South Yorkshire county in northern England, more than 200 miles from the village of Haytor on the edge of Dartmoor National Park, where Widdecombe died.Police have conducted extensive searches at his home and Taylor s...