Updated

Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 10

Counter-Terror Police Reopen Farage 2025 Home Attack Probe as Watchdog Investigates Link to Widdecombe Murder

Updated

Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 10

Counter-Terror Police Reopen Farage 2025 Home Attack Probe as Watchdog Investigates Link to Widdecombe Murder

Q: What crucial clue did counter-terror police miss in 2025 that could have prevented the brutal murder of a prominent UK politician?

Police have not publicly disclosed the crucial clue. What is known is that Counter Terrorism Policing London says it missed and failed to pursue a “line of inquiry” after the April 2025 attack on Nigel Farage’s home, when a lit incendiary device was pushed through his letterbox. At the time, the incident was treated as an attempted burglary in which only door damage was recorded and nothing was stolen. Farage has since described it as an outright arson attempt, and police now believe the overlooked lead may be relevant to the wider investigation into Ann Widdecombe’s murder. The exact nature of that missed clue — whether forensic evidence, CCTV, suspect identification, travel patterns, extremist motive, or a connection to the man now charged, Joshua Kerry — has not been released by police or the watchdog. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating a Counter Terrorism Policing London staff member over the alleged failure to identify and pursue it. So the key factual answer is that the missed clue remains undisclosed, but it appears to have been a potentially significant lead from the 2025 Farage firebombing inquiry that police now think may have had relevance to preventing the later killing of Ann Widdecombe.

3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 10

CTP London reopened its inquiry last week into an April 2025 incident at Nigel Farage's London home, where he said a lit incendiary device was pushed through his letterbox.
Farage said the case is "directly linked" to the murder of Ann Widdecombe, though police have not explained the connection publicly.
The IOPC has begun an independent investigation after CTP London referred itself over an allegation that a staff member failed to identify and pursue a line of inquiry in the original case.
Police had closed the 2025 investigation with no arrests after reporting door damage and no theft, but said Friday that a new line of inquiry had since been identified.
Widdecombe, 78, was found dead in Devon last month with serious injuries; Joshua Kerry was later charged with murder and separately arrested on terrorism-related suspicion.