Brendan Cox: Jo would be 'gutted' over election division

The husband of murdered MP Jo Cox has said she would have been "gutted" to see the general election being used "to denigrate minorities and spread division".

Ms Cox, the former Batley and Spen MP was killed by far-right terrorist Thomas Mair on 16 June 2016, a week before the EU referendum vote.

Last week, Su Moore, CEO at the Jo Cox Foundation, said violence against election candidates "is an affront to democracy" after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage had items thrown at him.

Brendan Cox added Ms Cox would also be “gutted to be missing this election” on 4 July.

Mr Cox said on X, formerly Twitter, she would have wanted to play her part in the general election.

He said: "Jo would be gutted to be missing this election, and her chance to play a role in making our country better.

"She believed passionately in the potential of politics.

“She'd also be gutted to see some people willing to use it to denigrate minorities and spread division."

Mr Cox, who was married to Ms Cox from 2009 until 2016, said his family will mark the eighth anniversary of her death by "remembering all she meant to us and to so many others".

He said their children will put on a concert of her favourite songs, adding that she would have loved to have seen the people their two children have grown into.

He said: "Their love, kindness and spirit of adventure - all of which they have inherited from her.

"We miss her every day but cherish what we had and what we built together.

“Her work and her love continues."

Ms Cox died after being stabbed and shot by Mair in Birstall, West Yorkshire, just days before her birthday, which would have been on 22 June.

Mair also turned on 78-year-old Bernard Kenny who tried to stop him.

In a raid of Mair's home nearby, police found Nazi-related material and he was jailed for life on 23 November 2016.

The incident took place just days before the Brexit referendum and only a year after Ms Cox had been elected as an MP.

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