Ann Widdecombe gave her final interview to Christian speech radio station TWR-UK just 20 minutes before police believe she was murdered. The former Conservative minister and Brexit Party MEP was found dead in her Dartmoor home late on Thursday morning, with police later stating she is thought to have died almost 24 hours beforehand.
Timeline of Events
Widdecombe had been scheduled to appear on Matt Allwright’s Channel 5 show on Wednesday. Text messages from producers indicate she stopped replying after 12:19pm. It has now been revealed she conducted an interview with TWR-UK between 11:54am and 12:10pm. On Saturday, Devon and Cornwall Police said her murder is believed to have occurred at around 12:30pm.
Interview Content
A section of the interview, which was never broadcast, has been published by Times Radio after permission was granted by Widdecombe’s family. In the clip, she discussed the register of MPs’ interests and the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner investigations into Reform leader Nigel Farage.
Widdecombe, who most recently served as Reform’s justice spokesperson, said: ‘The register used to be an extremely serious instrument, which meant that you declared anything which might have any impact on the way you vote. That was the intention of it – a good one, you need to know. But it then got to the point where you had to declare all your earnings, regardless of whether they influenced anything.’
She added: ‘My standard joke at the time to the then-registrar was, you’re expecting me to declare the fee I received for appearing with Basil Brush – is that because you expected it to influence my vote on hunting?’
Farage Investigations
Farage faced two investigations by the Standards Commissioner over whether he should have formally declared a £5 million ‘gift’ from a crypto billionaire and support from convicted fraudster George Cottrell. Both probes were shut following his resignation as an MP last week, but will automatically restart if he wins the resulting by-election as expected.
Widdecombe supported Farage’s decision to call his ‘people versus the establishment’ by-election in the radio interview, which was pre-recorded rather than broadcast live.
Investigation Update
Interviewer James Maidment-Fullard told the Times he had informed the police about the recording, but they had not requested it. Yesterday, it was announced that Widdecombe’s death is being treated as an act of terrorism, with counter-terror police taking over the investigation.
In a statement to MPs, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the case ‘raises questions about the security of those in public life’. She offered Farage a meeting with the chair of RAVEC, the independent body in the Home Office responsible for providing security for public figures, which the Reform leader accepted yesterday.
