Jo Cox

Jo Cox
Cox in 2015
Member of Parliament for Batley and Spen
In office 8 May 2015 – 16 June 2016
Preceded by	Mike Wood
Succeeded by	Vacant
Majority	6,051 (12.00%)
Personal details
Born	Helen Joanne Leadbeater (1974-06-22)22 June 1974 Batley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Died	16 June 2016(2016-06-16) (aged 41) Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Brendan Cox
Children	2
Education	Heckmondwike Grammar School
Alma mater	Pembroke College, Cambridge London School of Economics
Website	Official website

Helen Joanne "Jo" Cox (née Leadbeater; 22 June 1974 – 16 June 2016) was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Batley and Spen from her election in May 2015 until her death 13 months later in June 2016, having retained the seat with an increased majority for Labour in the 2015 general election.

Born in Batley, West Yorkshire, and raised in nearby Heckmondwike, Cox graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1995 before working as a political assistant. She then joined the international humanitarian charity Oxfam, where she rose to become head of policy and advocacy at Oxfam GB. She was selected to contest the Batley and Spen constituency after the previous incumbent decided not to stand again in 2015. Having retained the seat for Labour, she became a campaigner on issues relating to the Syrian Civil War, and also founded and chaired the all-party parliamentary group Friends of Syria.

On 16 June 2016, Cox was shot and stabbed multiple times in Birstall, where she had been due to hold a constituency surgery. She died from her injuries about an hour later. A 52-year-old man was arrested in connection with the attack.

Early life and education

Cox was born on 22 June 1974 in Batley, West Yorkshire, England, and raised in Heckmondwike. Her mother was a school secretary while her father worked in a toothpaste and hairspray factory. She was educated at Heckmondwike Grammar School, a state grammar school, where she was head girl. During summers, she worked packing toothpaste.

Cox studied Social and Political Sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1995. She was the first in her family to attend at university. She later studied at the London School of Economics. She later recalled that her experience at Cambridge, where family pedigrees were viewed as important, "knocked me for about five years".

Career

Early career

Following her graduation, Cox worked as an adviser to Labour MP Joan Walley, before moving to Brussels to spend two years advising Glenys Kinnock, who was then a Member of the European Parliament. Cox worked for the aid groups Oxfam and Oxfam International between 2001 and 2009, serving first in Brussels as the leader of the group's trade-reform campaign, becoming head of policy and advocacy of Oxfam GB in 2005, and then becoming head of Oxfam International's humanitarian campaigns in New York in 2007. Her work at Oxfam, including meeting disadvantaged groups in Darfur and Afghanistan, influenced her political career.

Cox's charity work later led to a role advising Sarah Brown (the wife of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown), who was spearheading a campaign to prevent deaths in pregnancy and childbirth. Cox was national chair of the Labour Women's Network and a senior adviser to the Freedom Fund, an anti-slavery charity.

Political career

Cox was nominated by the Labour Party to contest the Batley and Spen seat being vacated by Mike Wood in the 2015 general election. She was selected as a candidate for a seat via an all-women shortlist. The Batley and Spen constituency is generally a safe seat for Labour, and Cox won the seat with 43.2% of the vote, increasing Labour's majority to 6,051.

Cox made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 3 June 2015, using it to celebrate her constituency's ethnic diversity, while highlighting the economic challenges facing the community and urging the government to rethink its approach to economic regeneration. She was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015, but said at the time that she had done so in order to get him on the list and encourage a broad debate. In the election she voted for Liz Kendall, and announced on 6 May 2016 after the local elections that she and fellow MP Neil Coyle regretted nominating Corbyn.

The Syrian conflict was one of Cox's main campaigning issues. In October 2015 she co-authored, with Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, an article in The Observer arguing that British military forces could help achieve an ethical solution to the conflict in Syria. During that month Cox launched the All Party Parliamentary Friends of Syria group, becoming its chair. In the subsequent vote to approve UK military intervention against ISIL in Syria, Cox abstained (one of five Labour MPs to do so), as she did not consider the intervention to be part of an effective comprehensive strategy to tackle the Syrian conflict including dealing with President Bashar al-Assad. She was described as "a tireless campaigner" for refugees.

Cox was a parliamentary supporter of the Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East, and called for the lifting of the blockade of the Gaza Strip. She had opposed efforts by the government to curtail the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and has stated "I believe that this is a gross attack on democratic freedoms. Not only is it right to boycott unethical companies but it is our right to do so."

Cox supported the "Remain" campaign during the 2016 referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union. Following her death, campaigning about the EU referendum was suspended for the day on both sides as a mark of respect. The BBC also announced that editions of Question Time and This Week, two political discussion programmes scheduled to air that evening and due to focus on issues relating to the referendum, would be cancelled.

Death

Main article: Death of Jo Cox

The library in Birstall where Cox had been due to hold a constituency surgery at the time of the attack

On 16 June 2016, Cox was fatally shot and stabbed outside a library in Birstall, West Yorkshire, prior to attending a constituency surgery scheduled for 1:00 pm.

According to eyewitnesses, she was shot three times—once near the head—and stabbed multiple times. A 77-year-old man was also stabbed while trying to prevent her death. Initial reports indicated that the assailant shouted "Britain first" as he carried out the attack. The far-right Britain First party issued a statement denying any involvement or encouragement in the attack and suggested that the phrase "could have been a slogan rather than a reference to our party".

Four hours after the incident, West Yorkshire Police announced that Cox had died at Leeds General Infirmary. She was the first sitting MP to be murdered since the 1990 death of Conservative Ian Gow, victim of an Irish Republican Army car bomb, and it was the first serious assault on a MP since Stephen Timms was stabbed by Roshonara Choudhry in an attempted assassination in 2010. A memorial service was held at St Peter's Church, Birstall the following day.

A 52-year-old man, who reportedly had a history of psychiatric problems and links to the American based neo-Nazi group the National Alliance, was arrested in connection with Cox's death shortly after the attack. In a statement issued the day following the attack, West Yorkshire Police stated that Cox was the victim of a "targeted attack" and that the suspect's links to far-right extremism were a "priority line of inquiry" in a search for a motive.

Cox's husband, Brendan, issued a statement following her death, urging people to "fight against the hatred that killed her". Among those who paid tribute to Cox were Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who described her as someone who was "dedicated to getting us to live up to our promises to support the developing world and strengthen human rights", while Prime Minister David Cameron said she was "a star for her constituents, a star in parliament, and right across the house". U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton paid tribute, saying "it is cruel and terrible that her life was cut short".

Personal life

Cox was married to Brendan Cox, who served as an adviser on international development to Gordon Brown during the latter's premiership. They had two children, who were aged three and five when their mother died.

Cox's family divided their time between their constituency home and a houseboat (a converted barge) on the Thames, moored near Tower Bridge, London.

See also

• Batley and Spen by-election, 2016
• Anna Lindh