Labour MPs Lucy Powell (from left), Jeff Smith and Paula Sherriff and former Labour councillor Karen Rowling arrive to lay flowers in tribute to slain Labour MP Jo Cox in Birstall, northern England. (Photo: AFP)
Labour MPs Lucy Powell (from left), Jeff Smith and Paula Sherriff and former Labour councillor Karen Rowling arrive to lay flowers in tribute to slain Labour MP Jo Cox in Birstall, northern England. (Photo: AFP)
Britain mourned Labour MP Jo Cox on Friday after a man wielding a gun and knife killed the 41-year-old in an attack that has thrown next week’s referendum on European Union membership into limbo.
Cox, a supporter of Britain staying in the EU, was shot and stabbed on Thursday by a man who witnesses said shouted “Britain first” in her own electoral district near Leeds in the county of West Yorkshire in northern England. A 52-year-old man named by media as Thomas Mair, and described by family members as having a history of mental illness, was arrested and police said a firearm was recovered.
Britain First, a far-right nationalist group, denied any links with Mair but a US civil rights group said he had been associated with a neo-Nazi organisation.
Prime Minister David Cameron called for tolerance in public debate on Friday near the spot where Cox was gunned down, as it was announced that Parliament would be recalled Monday to pay tribute. “Where we see hatred, where we find division, where we see intolerance we must drive it out of our politics and out of our public life and out of our communities,” Mr Cameron said in Birstall. Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn of Labour said that he had asked the Speaker and Mr Cameron to recall Parliament so that MPs could pay their respects to Cox.
The killing prompted campaigning to be suspended in the June 23 EU referendum, the tone of which has become ugly and included bitter personal recriminations as well as furious debate of issues such as immigration and the economy.
Though the killer’s motives were not immediately clear, some financial market analysts suggested sympathy for Cox could boost the Remain campaign which opinion polls indicate had fallen behind Leave. It was not clear when campaigning would resume. The police said they were not in a position to discuss the motive of the attack and a full investigation was under way. There have been no charges in connection with the killing.
“Jo believed in a better world,” Cox’s husband Brendan, said.
Major campaign events for Britain’s EU referendum on June 23 will be suspended for a third day on Saturday.
“Vote Leave will be suspending major campaign events on Saturday such as the planned rally in Birmingham,” a spokesperson for the Brexit camp said.
A spokesperson for the official “Remain” camp, Britain Stronger in Europe, meanwhile, said that its campaign would also “continue to be suspended tomorrow.”
