— ‘Harvey Proctor, a former Tory MP and close friend of Widdecombe, said Farage’s public pronouncements were “deeply disappointing”, the Times reported.
“Ann Widdecombe was far too dear to her family, friends and former colleagues for her murder to be exploited as political propaganda,” he told the Times. “The police have expressly asked the public not to speculate about the motive. It is therefore deeply disappointing that Nigel Farage has chosen to do precisely that.”
…
Another senior Tory MP said he thought Farage had “brought this into his narrative. He needs a narrative to keep himself in the media for the next four weeks to talk about anything that isn’t [questions over the £5m gift].
“He’s leveraging this to say we all need security because this is ‘premeditated’. There’s no evidence to suggest that it’s a politically motivated murder at all. Until the police conclude their investigation, the speculation is just harmful.”’
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/12/police-speculation-during-widdecombe-investigation-is-unhelpful-and-distressing
