Tice finally gauges the mood on the death of Ann Widdecombe | John Crace

TThis is the third murder of a sitting or former member of parliament that I have covered in the last 10 years. It doesn’t get any easier or less shocking anymore. Every death diminishes us all. You can at least hope that politicians behave with dignity. To set an example. Let those who knew Ann Widdecombe express their personal loss, party leaders and ministers convey the horror of her death and express their condolences to her family and friends. It’s probably best for everyone to say as little as possible for now.

Police asked the suspect, who continued to be questioned by counter-terrorism teams as of lunchtime on Monday, to refrain from speculating about his motive and, if possible, not to politicize the murder. It’s time for our political class to act like adults. And the overwhelming majority did. For now, even Nigel Farage has stopped pretending he is the detective leading the investigation, offering his insights to every TV crew that passes by, and has gone silent.

But perhaps there are a few Reform politicians who haven’t quite gotten the message. Or they understood the idea that they could actively compromise an ongoing police investigation. First thing on Monday morning, Richard Tice launched a bizarre attack on the Times, describing its journalists who reported that Farage was accused of using Widdecombe’s murder as propaganda as sick and insisting they wanted more Reform MPs killed.

Meanwhile, Zia Yusuf was sharing on social media that the Speaker of the House of Commons and the government were deliberately trying to limit the security available to Reform MPs. And when Lindsay Hoyle denied this in a media briefing, Yousef only doubled down: The speaker was a disgrace and attempts to shut down speculation were all about protecting the establishment’s narrative. Only Zia knew the truth. The whole thing was a conspiracy against the Reformation. Widdecombe’s murder may also have been a state-sponsored murder.

In the afternoon Hoyle had the opportunity to speak on his behalf at the beginning of the home secretary’s Commons statement on the murder. However, the speaker chose not to address Yusuf’s allegations and instead reminded MPs that speculation about the suspect’s motives could interfere with the police investigation. Rather, it would be more helpful if they limited their remarks to Ann’s memories and the safety of politicians in general.

But it turned out that most MPs had no memories of Ann. It’s not because they don’t like or respect him; they just had never known him other than as a TV personality on Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother and the occasional speaking head of Reformation on the news channels. Widdecombe left parliament in 2010, long before most current MPs took their seats.

Shabana Mahmood made a good fist of paying tribute, though. Ann was an open-minded woman. A deeply committed Catholic. He is someone who believes in taking advantage of every opportunity that comes his way. As he once said: “Only one person can make it to this side of eternity.” The Home Secretary then turned his attention to what little he could say about the suspect. Prevent is an unknown 28-year-old white British man. In other words, he was not a terrorist who entered the system and infiltrated the network.

Shabana stated that the government is committed to the safety of people in public life. However, it is unclear whether the protection will be extended to all former MPs and celebrities with strong political views on social media. This can quickly become very expensive. So where do you draw the line? That was a discussion for another time. It was enough for now that he invited Farage to meet his security team to see what more he could be offered. It’s a chance for Nigel to reveal how much of the £5 million he’s already spent on security.

In response, shadow home secretary Chris Philp was a model of civility. The message had clearly gone out to all MPs that the House of Commons was not the place to start scoring political points. This was the time for MPs to show themselves at their best. It’s something they can do if they try. It provides a welcome change. They should try this more often.

Before asking if there was more information about the investigation, Chris brought up a memory of meeting Ann when he was at college – I’m sure Ann remembered nothing of that meeting while she was alive. There wasn’t. He concluded his speech by thanking the speaker for taking MPs’ security concerns so seriously. A harsh disparagement of Yusuf was repeated by many other MPs.

This opened the door for others to offer their tributes. Diane Abbott paid her own price before listing some of the harassment and death threats she has received over the years. He hadn’t felt really safe for a while. Liberal Democrat Max Wilkinson described Widdecombe as a showman before raising Zia’s worrying allegations about the speaker. He assumed this was nonsense, given Joseph’s reputation, but a correction to the record would be nice. Hoyle duly confirmed that he treated every MP equally and that any concerns raised with him were passed on to the Commons security team.

The warmest praise came from Richard Tice, who has known Ann for some time through the Brexit party and Reform. Ann was one of the giants of public life, an incredible orator. He had clearly read the room and decided it was not the time to repeat his claims about the media war against Reformation. Instead, he just wondered if the police had been a little too quick to rule out a political motive for the murder. They didn’t though. They had never before found any evidence to support the existence of such a thing.

Suella Braverman, Lee Anderson and Robert Jenrick were a little more outspoken. After paying their respects, they all chose their opponents. Braverman took to Sky News, The Mail on Sunday and The Times over their “disgusting and deplorable” reporting. Anderson lashed out at other party MPs who described Reform as the party of “bigots and racists”.

You couldn’t help but think that they were guilty of equally deplorable behavior. Jenrick wondered whether the Home Office had deliberately denied Farage protection because of his identity.

Mahmood assured him that this was not the case. The security team makes its own independent assessments of the level of security required and is not involved in the decision-making process. It felt as if this were the briefest of truces in the ongoing culture wars sparked by Widdecombe’s murder. It was great while it lasted. Normal service will resume tomorrow. Whether you like it or not, Ann’s death will be political.