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British counterterrorism police lead probe into murder of politician

British counterterrorism police have taken over the investigation into the death of former politician Ann Widdecombe, according to the U.K. home secretary, after “new information” came to light.

“This morning I have spoken to the head of [Counter Terrorism Policing],” Shabana Mahmood wrote on X. “Following new information and evidence, they are now leading on the investigation into the horrific murder of Ann Widdecombe.”

“The police are pursuing multiple lines of enquiry to establish the motivation for this attack,” she said, adding that she would be giving further information to parliament later on Monday.

A murder investigation was launched Friday after Widdecombe was found dead at her home on Thursday in Haytor, on the edge of Dartmoor National Park in southwest England, according to police. 

The 78-year-old former Conservative member of parliament had “sustained serious injuries,” police said.

On Saturday, British police arrested a 28-year-old man in South Yorkshire in northern England, more than 200 miles from where Widdecombe was found dead.

The suspect was originally arrested on suspicion of murder. He has been rearrested on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, Counter Terrorism Policing South East said.

Widdecombe served as a lawmaker from 1987 to 2010. She was known for socially conservative views opposing abortion and any expansion of LGBTQ+ rights.

She found fame after leaving Parliament as a contestant on the “Strictly Come Dancing” and “Celebrity Big Brother” reality television shows. 

Widdecombe later joined the Brexit Party and became a spokeswoman for the anti-immigration Reform UK party. 

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson called her a “heroic Brexiteer and a great speaker who could move Tory audiences to such ecstasy that she was a very hard act to follow.”

Former US archivists warn that Trump’s effort to ignore records law jeopardizes national security and government continuity

By CNN
(CNN) — Former leaders of the National Archives — which preserves and protects the nation’s most important documents — are urging a federal appeals court to reject the Trump administration’s effort to ignore the Presidential Records Act, a decades old law that requires presidents save all official records from their time in office.Six archivists, who served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, argue that the law is critical in maintaining “continuity of governance” and protecting national security.The archivists — a coalition covering every living person to have previously held the role before Marco Rubio’s brief appointment to the position at the beginning of Trump’s second term — filed an amicus brief Wednesday in support of a lawsuit from presidential scholars, historians and public transparency groups.The legal fight began after the Trump administration said it believed the president did not need to comply with decades-old record-keeping obligations set by Congress in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. The law, which Trump’s Justice Department has claimed is unconstitutional, is intended to preserve documents so that future presidents, members of Congress, courts and the public can understand how an administration made critical decisions.“Preserving presidential records ensures that new leaders can have immediate and ongoing access to the data, strategy, and rationale behind past policy decisions,” the group said, noting that, in their experience, the most “frequent request for preserved presidential records comes from the incoming president’s national security advisors.”The archivists signed on to the brief are Trudy Huskamp Peterson, John W. Carlin, David S. Ferriero, Debra Steidel Wall, Colleen Shogan and William J. Bosanko — as well as Gary M. Stern, a former agency general counsel.The plea from the former archivists comes months after a federal judge in Washington said that White House staff must preserve their official records while the lawsuit plays out in court but declined to put any restrictions directly on the president, the vice president, the National Archives and archivist.In the May ruling, US District Judge John Bates concluded that the Presidential Records Act (PRA) was likely constitutional, rebuking the stance taken by the Justice Department earlier this year. The Justice Department has appealed the ruling to the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments are slated for October 16.The PRA requires presidents and their staff to preserve White House records and turn those records over to the National Archives at the end of their administrations.It was instrumental in the chain of events that led to Trump’s prosecution for allegedly mishandling classified documents that he took from the White House at the end of his first term.The legal fight stems from a conclusion from Trump’s Office of Legal Counsel, a Justice Department office that gives advice to the executive branch, that the law was unconstitutional. The OLC memo was seen as an audacious move for a number of reasons, including for how it seemed to eschew Supreme Court precedent backing Congress’ power to regulate presidential record preservation. The guidance only addressed the preservation of email and text messages, rather than all electronic records, which the PRA covers.The American Historical Association and the left-leaning government transparency group American Oversight quickly filed a lawsuit, warning that presidential records they intend to use for their research “will be irretrievably lost” if the court didn’t intervene.The former archivists say the PRA “helps to bridge the gap between the outgoing and incoming administrations.”“Geopolitical tensions do not pause for an inauguration,” they wrote in the court filing. “Presidential records include the entire holdings of the National Security Council… such as sensitive intelligence assessments, treaty negotiations, and operational contingency plans. Ensuring that these files are preserved and seamlessly made available to new administration officials allows incoming national security advisors and cabinet officials to evaluate active threats, maintain diplomatic momentum, and make informed decisions during unexpected global crises.”The administration has rebuffed concerns, insisting that the “lion’s share” of presidential records are being preserved, because work being done by presidential staff on White House-issued phones is being kept.CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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