A 28-year-old man, Joshua Kerry, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court charged with the murder of former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe, with prosecutors alleging he struck her 21 times on the head with a hammer at her home. The case has shocked the public and political establishment, particularly as police are investigating a possible political or terrorist motive, having also arrested Kerry on suspicion of acts of terrorism.

Prosecutors said Kerry drove to Widdecombe's isolated village home in southwest England while she was eating lunch, attacked her and stole her wallet. She is believed to have been attacked on 8 July and was found dead by her gardener the following day, with blunt force head injury given as the provisional cause of death. Widdecombe, 78, served as an MP from 1987 to 2010 and as prisons minister under John Major, later gaining wider fame on Strictly Come Dancing before joining the Brexit Party and, more recently, Reform UK. Her killing has reignited concerns about MPs' security, following the murders of Jo Cox in 2016 and David Amess in 2021.