LONDON (AP) — British police on Friday arrested a 26-year-old man on suspicion of murder in the killing of Ann Widdecombe, a former British member of Parliament and reality TV contestant.
Widdecombe, 78, was found dead on Thursday in her Haytor Vale home on the edge of Dartmoor National Park in southwest England after sustaining what police said were “serious injuries.”
The killing was not believed to be an act of terror and there was no information to suggest it was politically motivated, Devon and Cornwall Police Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman said.
Longman did not discuss a possible motive but said the suspect was in custody as the investigation continues.
“This is really shocking news, and my thoughts, I think all of our thoughts, will be with the family and friends of Ann Widdecombe at this awful time,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said. “Ann was a distinguished politician over many, many years with many achievements, and it’s a huge, huge loss.”
Widdecombe found fame after leaving Parliament as a contestant on the Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother reality television shows. She later joined the Brexit Party and became a spokeswoman for the anti-immigration Reform UK party.
She served in the House of Commons as an MP from 1987 to 2010 and was known for socially conservative views opposing abortion rights and expansion of LGBTQ rights.
Starmer said the security of lawmakers was “of the utmost importance” as he urged people to rise above political differences.
Security has been tightened for politicians after the murders of two serving members of Parliament in the past decade. Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed in 2016 by a far-right extremist, and Conservative David Amess was stabbed in 2021 by an attacker inspired by the Islamic State group.
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform, said he was deeply upset over Widdecombe's death and noted that “things have become even more dangerous” for people in public life.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Widdecombe a “heroic Brexiteer and a great speaker who could move Tory audiences to such ecstasy that she was a very hard act to follow."
The management company that represented her after she left politics said her life and career were driven by strong Christian values and a commitment to public service.
“She loved the cut and thrust of political debate and, 16 years after leaving Parliament, was still actively campaigning for Reform UK and offering forthright views on the hot topics of the day,” Cloud9 Management said.
“As Ann once said...‘we get one go this side of eternity, one go. Life is not a dress rehearsal, you take opportunities that you like and you go for it, that’s my philosophy’.”
Police outside the house of former lawmaker Ann Widdecombe, in Haytor, England, Friday July 10, 2026, after she was found dead in her home on Thursday with serious injuries. (Matt Keeble/PA via AP)
Police outside the house of former lawmaker Ann Widdecombe, in Haytor, England, Friday July 10, 2026, after she was found dead in her home on Thursday with serious injuries. (Matt Keeble/PA via AP)
FILE - Britain's European parliament member Ann Widdecombe, right, of the Brexit party, speaks during a debate at the European parliament, Jan. 14, 2020, in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)
TORONTO (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump says his country does not need Canada. But every day, roughly 4 million barrels of Canadian crude oil flow south, helping fuel American cars, trucks and airplanes and supply U.S. industry.
And oil is only the beginning.
Canada also supplies aluminum, potash to U.S. farms and parts for an auto industry built on both sides of the border.
“WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!” Trump posted this week, repeating his long-running claim.
Yet Trump has imposed a 50% tariff on Canadian aluminum while acknowledging this week that the United States badly needs the metal.
“This country desperately needs aluminum,” Trump said. “We don’t have it. We get it all from Canada for the most part, and we need it badly.”
The contradiction underscores how deeply the two economies remain intertwined — and how much could be at stake if Trump’s trade war reaches more of the energy, materials and supply chains that the U.S. still relies on Canada to provide.
Canada is the United States’ second-largest trading partner after Mexico and energy is at the heart of that relationship.
The two countries exchanged about $872 billion in goods and services last year. Canadian crude imports equal nearly 20% of total U.S. petroleum consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, part of the Department of Energy.
Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University, said Trump’s claim that the United States does not need Canada is “absolutely false,” citing U.S. reliance on Canadian oil and natural gas and deeply integrated industries such as autos.
Much of Canada’s crude flows to Midwest refineries built to process its heavy oil into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Energy also explains much of the U.S. trade deficit with Canada, which Trump frequently cites as evidence of an unfair relationship.
The White House this week portrayed the relationship in starkly negative terms, saying Canada had taken roughly $50 billion a year from the United States over the past decade. Much of that gap reflects U.S. purchases of Canadian energy, which helps power the U.S. economy. And Canada's heavy crude typically trades at a discount to U.S. benchmark oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Energy more than accounted for last year’s $48.3 billion goods deficit. Without energy, the United States would have run a trade surplus.
After trade talks collapsed last Friday, the U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. The measures cover only about 5% of Canadian exports to the United States and exclude energy.
For now, using oil as a weapon in trade negotiations remains a remote possibility. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith opposes restricting energy exports, arguing that doing so would hurt her province.
But former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said Canada should not rule out export taxes on oil, fuel or potash if Trump escalates further.
Such retaliation “would affect Republicans who drive F-150s and lay fertilizer on their farm fields,” Kenney said.
“They should be mindful that if they really want to escalate, it will not end well for the American economy two months before midterm elections,” he said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford cited Canadian commodities as leverage, accusing Trump of “putting out fake news” about the United States not needing Canada. He called potash used by U.S. farmers “one of the most powerful tools we have” and said Washington would have to turn to suppliers such as Russia if Canada redirected shipments.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe rejected that approach, saying his province “cannot and will not support” export tariffs on resources. He said Saskatchewan is on track to supply about half the world’s potash and warned that taxing exports could cost Canadian jobs, raise fertilizer prices and push U.S. buyers toward suppliers such as Belarus.
“This would be a tremendously flawed policy on behalf of Canadians,” Moe said.
Moe has backed a more targeted retaliation, saying Saskatchewan will impose a 50% reciprocal charge on U.S. alcohol beginning Sept. 8 after initially being one of only two provinces that kept American alcohol on store shelves.
Kenney stopped short of advocating an export tax on oil, and Béland said such a move would probably be “a very divisive issue politically in provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan.”
That underscores the limits of Canada’s leverage: measures aimed at hurting U.S. industries could also hurt Canadian producers and strain political unity at home.
Canada has long been the dominant foreign source of aluminum for the United States. Smelting the metal requires enormous amounts of electricity, giving hydro-rich Canada a major advantage.
Prime Minister Mark Carney told a New York business audience in May that Canadian aluminum exports to the U.S. are “the energy equivalent of 10 Hoover dams.”
American farmers are even more dependent on Canada for potash, a fertilizer essential to crops such as corn and soybeans. More than 80% of U.S. potash imports come from Canada.
Even Trump’s ambassador has disputed the idea that the United States needs nothing from its neighbor.
“America has a tremendous amount of things where we have a need,” Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said in June. Pointing to Canadian fertilizer supplies, he added: “We need potash.”
Then there are cars.
Canada and the United States have built an integrated auto industry in which parts can cross the border up to six times before final assembly, according to the Canadian government.
Trump said Monday that his administration would impose 50% tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks and auto parts starting Jan. 1, 2027 — after the November midterm elections.
That means a tariff aimed at Canada can land in Michigan or Ohio. Tax Canadian aluminum and an American automaker may pay more for metal. Tax Canadian parts and the cost of assembling an American vehicle can rise.
Artificial intelligence is driving a surge in electricity demand. Canada supplied 85% of U.S. electricity imports in 2023, according to the Canada Energy Regulator, and Carney says the country needs to double the capacity of its electricity grid by 2050 through major hydroelectric and nuclear projects.
Carney said Canada could help the United States “meet exploding demand to power AI."
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, speaks at the Davie shipyard in Levis, Quebec on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026. Joël Lightbound, Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement, left, Quebec Premier Christine Frechette, and Quebec Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy and Minister Responsible for Maritime Strategy Bernard Drainville look on. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press via AP)
FILE - The oil tanker Palanca Rio passes by Cape Elizabeth, Maine, on April 2, 2025, after a two-day voyage from St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
FILE - Workers prepare extruded aluminum product for packaging at Magna Aluminum Profile's fully electric powered extrusion facility in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec, Canada, on Sept. 3, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
