'It's not an Agatha Christie novel': Tory grandee blasts Nigel Farage over his comments on Ann Widdecombe's death
It comes amid a brewing row surrounding the Reform UK leader, who has been accused of weaponising Widdecombe's death for political ends
Ann Widdecombe's death is "not an Agatha Christie novel," Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith told LBC this morning, as he blasted Nigel Farage for speculating around her death and claiming her killing was "premeditated".
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Speaking on LBC, the Tory MP said he didn't doubt Farage's "genuine sense of loss" but added that it "doesn't, however, licence everybody to go off and try and make a concept of why it happened and how it happened."
It comes amid a brewing row surrounding the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has been accused of weaponising Ms Widdecombe's death for political ends.
Sir Iain told Tom Swarbrick: "This is not an Agatha Christie novel. This is real life and this is a real murder. And let's just leave the police to get on with it."
Former Conservative MP-turned Reform spokesperson Ann Widdecombe was discovered dead in her home in Haytor on Dartmoor on Thursday with serious head injuries, having been attacked almost a day earlier, police believe.
Read more: Ann Widdecombe's secluded Dartmoor home shown on national TV just days before she died
Read more: Ann Widdecombe murder ‘not politically motivated’, say police - as man, 28, still in custody
A 28-year-old man has been taken into custody after being arrested on suspicion of murder in Rotherham, South Yorkshire on Saturday evening.
Asked what he made of Nigel Farge's response to Miss Widdecombe's death, Sir Iain accused the Reform leader of "speculating without real understanding".
"What I would suggest to him and to everybody else is to go with the police view on this, which is not to jump to conclusions about it. Because if you look carefully, the first time they arrested somebody, everybody began to jump to conclusions about that, and then only to discover in fact they released him and he wasn't, he wasn't a guilty individual."
On Saturday, during a visit to Miss Widdecombe's Dartmoor village, the Reform UK leader said Miss Widdecombe's murder was definitely not a burglary and described it as "premeditated", defying police calls for an end to public speculation.
"The car went on to the drive at approximately 12.30pm on Wednesday,” Farage said.
“If you were a burglar, would you literally drive your car on to someone’s drive? You wouldn’t. From what I can see of it, from what I can make out, this was premeditated murder.”
It comes as CCTV footage seen by The Telegraph appears to show a man leaving an address linked to the suspect at around 7am on Wednesday – the day Miss Widdecombe is believed to have been attacked.
The man is said to have been seen putting “some kind of wooden stick” into the passenger side of a red car before driving off.
Tory MP Harvey Proctor, who was a close friend of Ms Widdecombe, described Mr Farage's comments as “deeply disappointing” and accused the Reform leader of "exploiting" her death.
“Ann Widdecombe was far too dear to her family, friends and former colleagues for her murder to be exploited as political propaganda,” he said.
"The problem is when you speculate without real understanding, what happens is it whips up people into an idea, and then everybody starts making it difficult for the police," Sir Iain told Tom Swarbrick.
He added: "And if we start speculating, which, listening to that Nigel Farage little clip , he was speculating about it, and then he says, but we mustn't. But he did."
"And so my point is, the best way not to speculate is not to speak about the causes or anything else, just talk about your sadness over Anne and your hope for the future. And that's all you can do until the police come clean with what's actually happened."
Pressed on the reasons behind Farage's speculation about Miss Widdecombe's death, he went on that he didn't "doubt that there is a genuine sense of loss there...but all I would say is that doesn't licence everybody to go off and try and make a concept of why it happened and how it happened".
"I don't want to get in a particular spat with him about this but the other day, we had a murder in my constituency, a knife attack. I didn't speculate about what the causes were or the reasons for it because that's what we have a police force for.
"And if they get on with it and they've arrested someone, and if it turns out this is the perpetrator, then at that point, once they release the information on it people will know what's happened. But in the meantime, speculating doesn't help.
"In public life, you know, we do run risks because the whole purpose of politics is to be close to the people. And that is how it works. And we would never want to change that."