They just can’t help themselves. Even when all sense of decency and due process demands otherwise, they just can’t stop themselves from behaving abysmally.
Nigel Farage, Richard Tice and Zia Yusuf are politicising the death of Ann Widdecombe. They are ignoring the requests of the police. They are ignoring even the most rudimentary demands of their own moral conscience. They are turning a tragedy into a circus.
On Saturday night, a 28-year-old white British national was arrested on suspicion of murder. On Sunday, the police had said there was nothing to suggest it was politically motivated at that stage. Devon and Cornwall Police have specifically asked people not to speculate about the possible motives.
Perhaps, in the future, we will learn new details about the murder which cast it in a different light. Perhaps we will discover that it was in fact politically motivated. Counterterrorism police are now leading the investigation, with police announcing today that “new information and evidence has come to light”. At the moment, we just don’t know. But what we can say, with absolute clarity, is this: we should not speculate about the facts of the case and we should not use the limited information available to us to confirm our pre-existing political agenda.
Farage travelled to the site on Saturday, before the arrest was made, and insisted it was “premeditated murder”. He argued Widdecombe’s killing was not “a burglary that went wrong”. He said: “The car went onto the drive at approximately 12.30pm on Wednesday. If you were a burglar, would you literally drive your car onto someone’s drive? You wouldn’t.”
Harvey Proctor, a former Tory MP and close friend of Widdecombe, told the Times: “Ann Widdecombe was far too dear to her family, friends and former colleagues for her murder to be exploited as political propaganda. 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.”
In a statement, Farage said: “I was very clear in what I said. I said I would not speculate as to whether it was someone with a grudge, someone with mental health problems or someone with political problems.”
Farage’s commentary sounds like the random thoughts of someone who lacks the seriousness or the self-discipline to know when to keep their mouth shut. But to me, they are more pernicious than that. They are an act of politicisation.
When news of Widdecombe’s death emerged, Farage was on the ropes. He had been pulverised by stories about his finances for months, first due to a £5m-gift from a Thai-based crypto billionaire, and then a series of valuable favours by an associate known as “Posh George”.
Initially, Farage said that the £5m-gift was for his security. He insisted that he would need protection “until the day that [he] dies” because the state largely refused his requests for help. He then later changed his story to a variety of different explanations.
Last week, he announced that he would try to pre-empt a standards commissioner investigation into his behaviour by calling a by-election in his constituency. He presented the reports about his finances as part of an establishment hit-job against a man of the people.
Widdecombe’s death has now been used by leading Reform figures to try and substantiate these two separate points: first, the specific argument about Farage’s need for security; and second, the general narrative that he is the victim of an establishment plot.
Tomorrow, two Labour MPs – Alex Sobel and Stella Creasy – are tabling amendments to the Representation of the People Bill which would cap party funding. The Government has announced a £100,000 cap on donations from overseas, but they want to go further, capping donations from inside the UK as well. Creasy’s amendment, for instance, would cap all individual donations at £100,000. This would damage Reform’s funding, because the party benefits from donations by ultra-wealthy individuals.
It looks like Reform is now using Widdecombe’s death to kick back against the amendment, using Farage’s argument that gifts and donations are used to pay for security. A Reform source told the Telegraph: “Labour MPs will be voting to put the lives of Reform politicians in danger, less than a week after the murder of a Reform politician.” This is a deeply irresponsible allegation, which uses the killing to slander anti-corruption MPs.
The same technique is being used to substantiate Farage’s conspiracy theory about an establishment plot. Deputy Reform leader Tice told the Times: “It’s as though someone in the establishment wants us dead. We’re treated differently because of our views.” Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said: “The state is providing no protection whatsoever. In fact, based on what I have seen in the last 48 hours, none of the Government, the Speaker nor the police care at all about the security of Reform MPs.”
This is an affront to Speaker Lindsey Hoyle, who takes MPs’ safety extremely seriously. It is also incorrect. A House of Commons spokesperson said: “All MPs are offered appropriate security measures.” The plain intention of this commentary is to consolidate the sense of an establishment plot, in this case suggesting senior figures in Parliament are trying to expose Reform politicians to murder. It is mad and it is outrageous.
The commentary from Reform in the wake of the killing is not random. It is not a question of incontinence. It has a purpose. It is intended to use the killing of their own colleague to advance their political agenda.
This moment asked so little from them. All they had to do was pay their respects, express their sadness and join the chorus of horror about the manner of Widdecombe’s death. But even that was evidently beyond their moral capacity.
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