On June 16, 2016, Labour MP Jo Cox was stabbed and shot dead in broad daylight in her constituency in Birstall, West Yorkshire.
Her alleged killer, Thomas Mair, is a white man with links to far-right groups. Thomas Mair gave his name in court as “Death to traitors, freedom for Britain”.
A rising star in British Parliament, 41-year-old Cox was elected as MP for Batley and Spen in the 2015 General Election. Besides being a parliamentarian, she was a much-loved wife, a cheerful mother of two beautiful young kids, daughter, sister, friend, colleague and a former aid worker who was fiercely passionate about politics and justice.
An alumnus of Heckmondwike Grammar School, Cox graduated from Cambridge University in 1995 and then built a career working for charities, including Oxfam, Save the Children and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
After graduating, she worked as an adviser for Labour MP Joan Walley and then Glenys (now Baroness) Kinnock. By the end of the 1990s she was head of campaigns for the pro-European pressure group Britain in Europe.
She also took on further study at the London School of Economics.
She was passionate about many causes, not least the plight of refugees in trouble-torn Syria. She lauded the benefits of immigration to the UK in her first speech in the House of Commons. She had said that local communities “are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us”. It was this positive outlook that made Cox such a darling among her constituents.
In Westminster, she was chairman of Labour Women’s Network and a senior adviser to the Freedom Fund, an anti-slavery charity. When MPs’ pay was reviewed, she said she would use the raise to increase the donations she makes to charity.
And she had spoken out on equal pay, railways and against reducing parents’ tax credits.
Political leaders cutting across party lines, including Prime Minister David Cameron, Tory MP Boris Johnson, UKIP leader Nigel Farage, came together to express their grief and condolences for Cox’s murder. US President Barack Obama and former First Lady Hillary Clinton too, among others, paid their tributes to Cox.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn described her as “a much-loved colleague, a real talent and a dedicated campaigner for social justice and peace”.
“Jo died doing her public duty at the heart of our democracy, listening to and representing the people she was elected to serve. It is a profoundly important cause for us all,” he said.
She was one of the MPs who nominated Corbyn so he could take part in the 2015 Labour leadership election.
But Cox had also come down heavily on the leadership in the wake of local election drubbings in May 2016, saying: “I think Jeremy needs to personally recognise that this isn’t good enough. He needs to take responsibility. We need to look very hard at what we’ve got wrong in the last eight months and put it right.”
In December 2015, Cox was one of five Labour MPs who abstained in the vote on air strikes against Islamic State in Syria. She was co-chair of the Friends of Syria All Party Parliamentary Group.
She had said: “In my view it is only when civilians are protected that we will defeat IS, and until that is at the centre of our plan, I will remain an outspoken advocate for that cause.”
Although Cox’s death has rattled Britain, the response from British politicians has been extraordinarily dignified. Most of them have refrained from politicising the murder. This assumes significance especially when the murder took place on the eve of the crucial EU referendum. In fact, as a mark of respect to Cox, both the Remain and the Leave camps temporarily suspended campaigning for the referendum.
Jo Cox was married to campaigner Brendan Cox, and she had two young children. She divided her time between their constituency home, and her river boat on the Thames.
Cox’s husband Brendan has vowed to work against the hate that killed his wife.
He said: “I and Jo’s friends and family are going to work every moment of our lives to love and nurture our kids and to fight against the hate that killed Jo. Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy and a zest for life that would exhaust most people. She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now: one, that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her. Hate doesn’t have a creed, race or religion, it is poisonous. Jo would have no regrets about her life, she lived every day of it to the full.”
On Monday (June 20), Brendon and family saw the House of Commons unite in tribute to Jo Cox.
Labour's Rachel Reeves choked back tears as she said voters will elect Mrs Cox's successor but “no one can replace a mother”.
Retired Jean Leadbeater, Jo Cox's mother, said: “There are some evil people in this world but there are an awful lot of good people too.”
Kim Leadbeater, Jo Cox's sister, said: “She will live on through Brendan, through us and through her truly wonderful children who will always know what an utterly amazing woman their mother was. She was a human being. She was perfect.”
A memorial fund launched in honour of Jo Cox has raised £1 million in just three days. Over 30,000 people have donated from across the globe, in support of her warmth, love, energy, passion and belief in the humanity of every person in every place, from Yorkshire to Syria.
Cox’s death goes beyond politics. The entire country was shocked and deeply saddened when the news broke about her tragic death.There is also a deep shock that an elected representative should have been attacked in the course of fulfilling her public service. Her killing should remind us that life is too short and precious. Like all of us, Cox went to work on June 16, but sadly didn’t return home. Her death reminds us to value our loved ones and not take them for granted – sadly, we do so most of the time because of our busy lives. Her untimely demise should make us realise that we should make the most of each day and not spend it wishing for tomorrow to come as we really don’t know when it could be snatched away.
