When the suspect in her killing, 52-year-old Tommy Mair, appeared in court charged with murder and other offenses Saturday, he said, “my name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain”.
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United Kingdom voters are set to go to the polls on June 23 to decide whether or not to remain in the European Union – and both sides halted campaigning after Cox was killed.
Eyewitnesses claimed her alleged killer, Thomas Mair, who was believed to have mental illness, had shouted out “Britain first”, which is the name of a right-wing nationalist group that described itself on its website as “a patriotic political party and street defence organisation”.
A 77-year-old man who intervened to try to protect Cox remains in hospital in a stable condition after suffering a serious injury to his abdomen.
Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Friday brought bouquets to a massive floral tribute near the scene of the attack in Birstall in Yorkshire.
John Bercow, the speaker of the House of Commons, said that while any death was a tragedy, Cox’s was “particularly shocking and repugnant”.
He continued: “Her death is an absolute tragedy and has rightly sent shockwaves around the world”.
Mrs Cox was shot and stabbed in the street outside her constituency surgery in Birstall, near Leeds in West Yorkshire, on Thursday.
Both sides in the deeply divisive campaign ahead of Thursday’s referendum on European Union membership have cancelled speeches and leafleting events amid calls for a less acrimonious political debate.
“Jo’s death was an attack on democracy, the whole country is shocked and saddened by it”.
“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”.
He will remain in custody until his next appearance Monday at the Old Bailey, London’s central criminal court.
Just hours before the attack, two polls had shown the “Leave” camp moving into the lead in the referendum campaign.
Thomas Mair Tommy Mair has been charged with the murder of British MP Jo Mair.
Whiteford said the last time she saw the Labour MP was at the annual Westminster charity tug-of-war contest and says she saw her pulling with “sheer dogged determination” and says she wants to remember Cox for “how she lived and not how she died”.
In statements on the group’s website that predate Ms. Cox’s killing, Britain First said that it holds some lawmakers to blame for facilitating the immigration that they say is the root of numerous U.K.’s problems.
“She only saw the good”.
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Parliament may hire a full-time social media investigator to trawl through online abuse directed at MPs to search for “fanatics” as part of a host of bolstered security measures in the wake of the brutal killing of Jo Cox MP last week.
