A 26-year-old white British male has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Ann Widdecombe. Police say not terror related.
Kemi Badenoch said:
“I’ve been stunned to hear this awful news.
To be honest, I’ve really struggled to find the words to say. Ann Widdecombe was a very fun and feisty woman who spoke her mind and she was 78 years old, she was an elderly woman.
I don’t understand how someone could do something so horrific to an elderly person. It was a nasty, horrific attack and my heart is breaking for her family.
It’s one thing when someone dies, but to know that they’ve been murdered in this horrible way is just awful.
The Conservative Party is reeling. Ann was a long-standing member of the Conservative Party, she was a Conservative minister, and then she moved to Reform.
I’m sure they’re just as stunned as we are, and I extend my condolences to Nigel Farage and everyone in Reform on behalf of the Conservative Party, because we’ve both lost a friend.”
The EU is currently negotiating its ‘Multiannual Financial Framework’ or MFF – the bloc’s long-term spending plan. Member states pay in, the EU splurges the cash, the cycle begins again…
Incoming PM Andy Burnham let the mask slip when he was recorded saying he would like to see the UK rejoin the EU. He walked that back, but only once he’d been caught out and his comments blew up…
Under the current MFF proposals, if the UK were to rejoin, it would have to restart contributions to the EU budget. Brexit stopped those contributions….
The MFF for 2028-2034 will land at somewhere around a staggering 2 trillion Euros. Using the EU’s own MFF formula, given reasonable estimates, this would leave the UK contribution at around £37 billion in 2025 prices. If you make a liberal estimate of what the UK would ‘get back’ through EU spending programmes here, that results in a net annual contribution of £960 per household, £535 per resident or £720 per income taxpayer. Put it another way, that’s roughly 70% of the MoD’s day-to-day budget, or a quarter of the UK’s net debt interest. This would make the UK’s payments something like £500 million a week, so the Brexit bus was right, and would in fact be an underestimate this time around…
If Guido adds this to his previous estimate of Burnham’s bill – the uncosted spending proposals put forward by the incoming Labour team – it puts his tally at approaching £300 billion. What planet is Burnham living on?
Ann Widdecombe, Justice Spokesman for the Reform Party, was found dead at her home in Dartmoor, her death was announced by her agent this morning. Devon & Cornwall Police have launched an investigation and are expected to make a statement this afternoon.
UPDATE: Devon & Cornwall Police launch murder investigation: “Our murder enquiry is in its early stages but moving at a significant pace. 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.”
Full statement:
‘A murder investigation has been launched following the suspicious death of former MP Ann Widdecombe at her home on Dartmoor in Devon.
Police officers were called to an address at Haytor by the ambulance service at around 11.40am on Thursday 9 July.
Sadly, 78-year-old Miss Widdecombe was located deceased within the property. She had sustained serious injuries.
Her next-of-kin have been informed and are being supported by specially trained officers.
Detectives from the Force Major Crime Investigation Team have launched a murder investigation and are conducting extensive enquiries into the circumstances surrounding Miss Widdecombe’s death.
A cordon remains in place at the property while specialist officers continue forensic examinations. There are road closures in place around the scene.
The public will see a significant police presence in the area today while detectives and officers conduct house-to-house and CCTV enquiries.
Detective Chief Inspector Ilona Rosson said: “This is an extremely tragic incident and our thoughts are very much with the family and friends of Ann Widdecombe at this difficult time.
“Our murder enquiry is in its early stages but moving at a significant pace. 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.
“I would appeal to anyone who may have information about this incident, however insignificant it may seem, to come forward and speak with us.
“We are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have seen anything suspicious in the vicinity of Haytor Vale, Haytor, or anyone with CCTV, doorbell or dashcam footage which could assist with our investigation.
“We have an increased uniformed police presence in the area to both support the investigation and provide reassurance to residents. Anyone with concerns can speak with our officers at the scene.
“We will release further information when we are able to do so. In the meantime I would ask people not to speculate about what might have happened, particularly on social media. This is not only potentially harmful to our investigation but also deeply distressing for family and friends of Ann Widdecombe.”
We have set up a Major Incident Public Portal [MIPP] for information, images or footage to be submitted to us. You can also contact us by phone on 101 or through our website, quoting reference 50260179119 and Operation Hunlen.’
Shabana Mahmood:
“I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of Ann Widdecombe. The circumstances of her death are extremely distressing and my thoughts are with Ann’s family and loved ones.
Ann’s dedication to public service was decades long, and she was a true servant of her constituents.
I have spoken to the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall police today. The Home Office stands ready to provide whatever support they need with their ongoing investigation.
I urge everyone to avoid speculation and allow the police investigation to progress.”
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy and the Henry Jackson Society have written to David Lammy demanding urgent answers over the release of al-Qaeda-linked terrorist associate Haroon Aswat from secure psychiatric detention. Aswat, 50, was discharged from Bethlem Royal Hospital in Bromley after completing treatment for schizoaffective disorder…
Timothy and the HJS say he has longstanding Islamist extremist links, including connections to al-Qaeda activity and the 7/7 London bombings, which killed 52 people. Police traced 20 calls made by the 7/7 suicide bombers, in the hours before their attacks, to a phone linked to him…
He was convicted in the US in 2015 for conspiring with Abu Hamza to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon, sentenced to 20 years (later reduced), and deported to Britain in 2022. He was released despite counter-terrorism police assessing he still posed a national security risk, and despite a psychiatrist noting that “even when in a relatively stable mental state [Aswat] has continued to express violent extremist Islamic ideology.” Because his release fell under mental health law rather than the standard terrorist-offender framework, he did not undergo a full counter-terrorism risk assessment…
Timothy says the case shows safeguards flagged six years ago by Jonathan Hall KC in his 2020 Independent Review of MAPPA for Terrorist Risk Offenders may still be unfit for purpose. Lammy has been asked to clarify four things:
- what has been done since the 2020 review to manage terrorist offenders in mental health settings,
- whether Ministers are reviewing Aswat’s release,
- whether legislative or procedural reforms are planned
- and whether all terrorism-convicted offenders leaving secure psychiatric hospitals should face a formal terrorism risk assessment before release.
The case raises questions about whether the system can handle terrorist offenders whose cases fall between mental health and national security. Jonathan Hall raised these concerns years ago…
Read the full letter below:
Continue reading “EXC: Alarm Bells After Release of Terrorist Associate Linked to 7/7”
It’s not been a great week for Gary Stevenson. Maybe that’s why he said he’s going to quit on Piers Morgan…
The Times kindly said Gary’s “willingness to put his passionate arguments to those who most forcefully oppose them makes for thought-provoking television.” The Telegraph dissected all the factual errors and concluded:
“Voices like Stevenson’s are vital to the healthy flourishing of debate in this country, but he would be better served by trying to prove he’s correct, rather than insisting upon it.”
The FT:
“YouTube is a medium in which the presenter largely talks at the audience. This is effective for a campaigner, but when it comes to conducting interviews, which require a back-and-forth, it can make for a frustrating experience. Stevenson is impassioned and earnest throughout, but nobody here is willing to budge. As a result, this is less a persuasive rallying cry than a series of conversations in which men who disagree with each other repeatedly butt heads.”
More despairing is the reception on the left. The Guardian’s two-star review said:
“This evangelising of a wealth tax should have made for a truly amazing documentary. But it allows its host to be totally out-argued by all his interviewees… Instead of Stevenson being left floundering, without convincing comebacks to any of them (was he not briefed? Was he paralysed in front of the camera? Has he simply spent too much time preaching to the choir and forgotten what it’s like to be challenged? Or is Neidle right in his frustrated pronouncement that “There’s no evidence you’ve ever thought about it!”), we could have had an hour of him being led through wider issues by a genuine expert and letting us all learn something along the way. This way was just a faintly embarrassing waste of time.”
Radical left tax commentator Richard Murphy said:
“This programme is deeply embarrassing. Gary shows himself quite unable to make the argument he sets out to deliver and, in the process, undermines the case for any form of increase in tax on wealth by failing to win any of the arguments with any of the people that he interviews, whilst emoting extensively, blubbing occasionally, proving himself to be all heart and no head, and someone lacking the expertise needed to make his case…
Gary appeared to do no more preparation for this programme than he did for his YouTube videos. In those, he has admitted that he is not a tax expert and does not know how a wealth tax could be designed or work, and that fact remained very apparent in this programme… without exception, he handled badly, failing to have almost any counterarguments to his opponents’ claims, making him look ill-prepared, lacking in expertise and without a case to make.”
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy…
Statement by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers Limited, following Harry’s loss in court today:
“Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail’s superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50 million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. Today’s verdict is not just a victory for Associated’s magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour’s Media Green Paper.”
