Leftist Charged With Murdering Ann Widdecombe Targeted Nigel Farage

The leftist man charged with murdering pro-life former lawmaker Ann Widdecombe has also been charged with a terror plot against Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Counter Terrorism Policing said Joshua Kerry, 28, of Byrley Road, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was charged Friday with one count of preparation of terrorist acts. The charge relates to alleged activity between May 31, 2024, and July 8, 2026, the day Widdecombe was killed. He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

Kerry is already accused of Widdecombe’s murder. He was charged in July and remanded in custody. A provisional trial date has been set for June 2027.

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He was arrested on suspicion of killing her on July 11 and rearrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said officers had been “running a hugely intensive and complex investigation for some time.”

“The charge announced today is a result of the tireless work of investigators across the Counter Terrorism Policing network,” Evans said. “This investigation has been led by a dedicated team of detectives, analysts, and forensic experts, working on multiple lines of enquiry, which has resulted in this very serious charge.”

Frank Ferguson, chief crown prosecutor in the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said prosecutors had reviewed the evidence and decided to charge Kerry “for engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts.”

“Our prosecutors have worked closely with police to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court, and we will continue working with them as their investigation progresses,” Ferguson said.

Widdecombe, 78, a Reform UK spokeswoman and former Conservative minister, died July 8 after she was hit over the head with a hammer 21 times at her home in Haytor on Dartmoor, Devon, a court previously heard. Prosecutors say she was struck while eating lunch, in an attack captured on security cameras. Her body was found the next day. Police estimated she had been dead for about 24 hours and called the killing a targeted attack.

She had been expected to appear that day by video on Channel 5’s Matt Allwright show. Her last confirmed communication was between 12:14 p.m. and 12:19 p.m., when she discussed the appearance with a producer. Officials said they believed she was attacked at about 12:30 p.m.

In August, counter-terrorism police reopened a year-long inquiry into an alleged firebomb attack at Farage’s home in south London. The Metropolitan Police and Counter Terrorism Policing London had treated the incident as an “attempted burglary” and closed it without arrests.

After reopening the case, officers identified a line of inquiry that “may have been relevant” but had not been “identified and pursued by them at the time.” Farage told the Daily Telegraph in April that a lit incendiary device was pushed through his letterbox early last year in what he called an “outright arson attempt.” He was away at the time and said the device had “luckily” burned itself out in the porch.

Widdecombe served 23 years as Conservative MP for Maidstone in Kent and held ministerial posts, including prisons minister, in Sir John Major’s government. She later became a Brexit Party MEP and, at her death, was Reform UK’s spokeswoman on immigration and justice. After leaving the Commons, she appeared on Strictly Come Dancing.

She converted to Catholicism in 1993 and became one of Britain’s most consistent champions of the sanctity of human life. A longtime patron of Right to Life UK and a senior figure in the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, she argued in Parliament as early as 1990 that abortion should not be treated as a legitimate medical procedure and that protections for the unborn should not be eroded.

In 2008 she supported amendments to lower the abortion time limit under key provisions of the Abortion Act to 12 weeks. She opposed assisted suicide bills in 1997, 2000 and 2004.

Pro-life organizations have called her a “heroine of the pro-life cause.”

Chris Whitehouse, a trustee of Right to Life UK, said: “For 40 years, Ann was to me a personal and family friend, a political mentor and a remarkable heroine of the pro-life cause. … She was unflinching in her politics, constant in her friendships and steadfast in her defense of the principle of the right to life, both for the unborn and for those approaching the end of their lives.”

Buckfast Abbey, where she regularly worshiped, described her as “a woman of profound faith, a faith which found expression in the public forum of politics” who “was unafraid to express her unwavering convictions, formed through her Roman Catholic faith.”