Ann Widdecombe gave final interview to radio station ’20 minutes before murder’

Ann Widdecombe spoke about Nigel Farage and Basil Brush in her final interview, which was given just 20 minutes before police believe she was killed.

The former Conservative minister and Brexit Party MEP was found dead in her Dartmoor home late on Thursday morning, with police later saying she is thought to have died almost 24 hours beforehand.

She had been due to appear on Matt Allwright’s Channel 5 show on Wednesday, and text messages from producers show she stopped replying after 12.19pm.

It has now been revealed she conducted an interview with Christian speech radio station TWR-UK between 11.54am and 12.10pm.

On Saturday, Devon and Cornwall Police said her murder is believed to have happened at around 12.30pm.

A section of the interview, which was never broadcast, has now been published by Times Radio after permission was given by Widdecombe’s family.

In the clip, she speaks about the register of MPs’ interests and the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner investigations into Reform leader Nigel Farage.

Widdecombe, who most recently acted 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.

‘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 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 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 being pre-recorded rather than broadcast live.

Interviewer James Maidment-Fullard told the Times he had told the police about the recording but they had not asked for it.

Yesterday, it was announced that Widdecombe’s death was 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 with responsibility for providing security for public figures, which the Reform leader accepted yesterday.

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