How the murder of my sister, Jo Cox, changed Britain
It’s a decade since the MP for Batley and Spen was killed by a far-right extremist. Her sister Kim Leadbeater, who took over her parliamentary seat, explains what lessons are still to be learned.
Jo Cox was a Labour MP for Batley and Spen, the place where she had grown up and had known her whole life. She was firmly pro-Europe, a passionate campaigner for social justice - and the mother of two young children, five and three years old. On 16 June 2016, at the height of a toxic Brexit campaign, Jo was murdered by a far-right extremist. He shot and stabbed her several times outside Birstall library in West Yorkshire, shouting “This is for Britain.” She was 41 years old.
Her sister Kim Leadbeater and her family set up the Jo Cox Foundation in her honour, and took on her former constituency. But a decade later, with far-right ideas increasingly mainstream and far-right violence more common, Leadbeater tells Nosheen Iqbal what lessons we can all learn from the tragedy.
Thumbnail image credit:
James Manning/PA Wire
Jo Cox Foundation/PA Wire
