16/06/2016 BBC News Special

The Labour MP Jo Cox is killed in her West Yorkshire constituency.

As a mark of respect, referendum campaigning is suspended.

The married mother of two was a former aid worker,

Jo Cox was married, she had two children, and she was stabbed here.

The man who has been arrested has been named locally as Tommy Mair.

Shortly afterwards, a man was arrested

nearby by local uniformed police officers.

Weapons, including a firearm, have also been recovered.

This image was released by her husband recently. Tributes have been

paid by many MPs. She was a campaigning MP with a huge heart and

people are going to be very, very sad at what has happened. Dreadful,

dreadful news. It is one week to go until the UK's referendum on

membership of the European Union, and after news of the attack, both

sides suspended their campaigns. Welcome to outside source. Birstall

is a small market town in the North of England not far from the city of

Leeds and I have come here because earlier in an almost unimaginable

event, the local MP, Jo Cox, was murdered on a pavement just behind

me. She was stabbed, she was shot by her attacker, she went about a drop

in for her local constituents in the library which is about 50 metres

just across the way. We understand the emergency services arrived about

15 minutes after the attack, and she was taken by air ambulance to a

hospital in Leeds. Within the last hour, we had confirmed that she died

just before 2pm in the afternoon. We know the police are holding a

52-year-old man who has been arrested and has been named locally

as Tommy Mair. They're also saying they're not looking for anyone else

as part of their investigation. There has been no comment whatsoever

on a possible motivation for this attack. And all this happened the

week before the UK vote on whether to stay in the European Union. It

has been a fierce and passionate campaign on both sides, but within

minutes of news of the attack coming through, both sides suspended their

campaigning for the day. Let's first of all hear from the Prime Minister

David Cameron. This is absolutely tragic and dreadful news, and my

thoughts are with Jo's husband Brendan and their two children and

their wider family. We have lost a great start. She was a great

campaigning MP with huge compassion and a big heart and people are going

to be very sad at this terrible news. Everyone

thoughts will be with her. There seems to have been an outpouring of

grief and tributes to the sort of person that she was. What did you

know about her? I know that she was a very strong campaigning MP and had

a great track record of looking into how we could look after Syrian

refugees and the right thing to do in our world. She had a huge heart

and was a very passionate campaigning MP. She was a bright

star, no doubt about it, a staffer constituents, a star of Parliament

and a store across the house. We have lost a start and above all I am

thinking of her husband Brendan, her children, her family, and her

constituents, who will be feeling this huge sense of loss. We will

stop the campaigning activity and think of them and what they have

lost. Jo Cox was a member of the opposition Labour Party. Its leader

is Jeremy Corbyn. He has released a long statement today. This is some

of it. In it, he says the whole of the Labour Party and Labour family,

and indeed the whole country, will be in shock at the horrific murder

of Jo Cox today. Well, her death was confirmed in the last hour, at a

press conference held by West Yorkshire Police.

Just before 1pm today, MP Jo Cox was attacked

in Market Street in

I am now very sad to have to report that she has died as a

Before going into further detail, I would like to

express our deepest sympathies to her family and friends at this

She was attacked by a man who inflicted serious, and sadly

Subsequently, there was a further attack on a 77-year-old man nearby,

who has sustained injuries that are non-life-threatening.

Shortly afterwards, a man was arrested

nearby by local uniformed police officers.

Weapons, including a firearm, have also been recovered.

At 1:48 p.m., Jo Cox was pronounced deceased by a doctor who was working

with a paramedic crew that were attending

This is a very significant investigation, with large numbers of

witnesses that are being spoken to by police at

There is a large and significant crime scene and there is

A full investigation is underway to establish the motive.

There are specifically trained officers with

Jo Cox's immediate family, who are fully aware of what has

taken place, and we would ask the media to

respect their privacy at this very difficult time.

Additional officers are working in the local community

this afternoon and evening in order to provide reassurance and support

Clearly, as this enquiry is at a very early stage,

and we have an individual under arrest, we are not in a position to

We are not looking for anyone else in

connection with this incident at present.

I am Mark Burns Williamson, the Police and Crime

Commissioner for West Yorkshire.

My thoughts and prayers are with Jo Cox's family at

I have worked closely with Jo since she was elected, and

I am deeply shocked that such a talented

young woman has been so

senselessly attacked and killed whilst working in her constituency

This is a truly shocking incident but I want

to try and reassure communities that this is a

localised incident, albeit one that has a much wider impact.

I must stress that investigations are

And we need to let the police do their job in understanding exactly

what has happened that has led to this hugely tragic incident and

channel all of our thoughts into supporting the families and

Reverend ball is the bigger of the local church. Thank you for making

Time for us. Hard to copy hand what has happened here today? It

certainly is. It has been a terrible shock for me and for the whole

community. Tellers about Jo. Did you meet? Yes, I met her. She was

bubbly, she was lively, she was determined to work for her local

community. She was just a lovely person. Sometimes when you talk

about politicians, they are divisive figures, but I have not heard any --

anyone say anything negative about her character and personality,

regardless of what their politics are. I am not aware of anything. As

I say, she was determined to help the community. There are people

watching is all around the world. They are looking at Birstall. They

will not know this place. Can you tell us about it? It is a community

of 15,000 people, it has a retail Park, it has a Jacobean house and

gardens, it had a paint factory and churches within it. They are good

people, Wilts people. They have got good hearts. I can see the cover is

here from the market. Give us an idea of what would have been

happening here around lunchtime when the attack took place? It is market

day today, and that is one of the reasons Joe with your doing her

surgery, meeting people in the community. Market stalls would have

been set up and they would have been selling of the different kinds of

things. They come once a week and people come out to it and to the

local shops around. Just to explain to people, behind the Reverend is

the local library where Jo Cox would have been meeting her constituents.

It was an advertised surgery which anybody can go along to to speak to

her about what they were concerned about. Just a moment ago, there were

a couple of 11 or 12-year-old girls sitting on the pavement and steering

through the police tape across the way to where she was attacked. Hard

to know, really, what to say to them or any of the other teenagers and

kids who have been looking on today. It is a story that is hard to

explain or copy hand. So often we are talking about gun crime on the

other side of the water. It all happens in America. When it comes to

your own community, it brings up whole issues of life and death. The

man who has been arrested is being named locally as Tommy Mair. Are you

aware of him? Don't know him, no. We heard the police saying now the

effort must go into supporting Jo Cox's family and those who knew her,

and I'm sure you will be part of that. How do you go about rebuilding

a community, supporting a community after an awful tragedy like this? We

will build on what is there. There are strong people up here and we

will be working with them and showing them that there is care and

that is why we have a bit odd night in the church. We are going to be

helping people to be sorrowful and ask the questions that we do ask at

times like this. I was going to ask you about that vigil. What do you

expect will be the activities this evening? We will be lighting a

candle and spending some time in the quiet and is giving people the

opportunity to reflect and have their own prayers and whatever they

want and especially for Jo's family and friends who must be devastated.

Reverend, thank you very much for your time. That is Reverend Paul

Aiton from the local parish church. I mentioned that Jo Cox was a member

of the opposition Labour Party. It's leader is Jeremy Corbyn. I read you

a written statement that was released a few minutes ago, but here

he is talking and paying tribute to Joe Cox. The whole of the Labour

family are devastated tonight. Jo Cox has been killed doing her duty,

doing her work as a constituency MP. She is somebody who dedicated her

life to human rights and to justice. She worked for anti-slavery

campaigns, she worked for Oxfam, and she became an MP for the area where

she was born and grew up and loved. In Parliament, she was respected

across the whole house. As somebody with a deep commitment and deep

passion for human rights and justice. Sadly, today, she died. She

was killed on the streets of her constituency doing her duty as a

local member of Parliament, helping people. She leaves behind a husband,

a wonderful man who likewise spends his life campaigning for human

rights and justice, and she leaves behind two young children, two young

children who will never grow up to see their mum again. They can be

proud of what she was, they can be proud of what she did, and they can

be very proud of everything that she stood for. We come together at a

time like this. We come together to support the family and to mourn, and

to reflect that violence is not an answer, violence is not an answer to

anything. We need to come together and express our deepest condolences

to Jo and her family. We have lost a wonderful woman. We have lost a

wonderful member of Parliament, but our democracy will go on. Her work

will go on. As we mourn her memory, we will work in her memory to

achieve that better world she spent her life trying to achieve. Well,

the husband of Jo Cox, who died on a pavement or was attacked on a

pavement just behind me here in Birstall in the north of England and

he died not long afterwards, her husband has released a statement.

Let me read it to you in full. He says, today is the beginning of a

new chapter in our lives, more difficult, more painful, less

joyful, less full of love. 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 hated that killed Jill. Jo believed any better world

and she fought for it every day of her life and she did so with an

energy that would exhaust most people. She would have wanted two

things above all to happen now, one that our precious children are baked

in love and to back that we all unite in love to fight against the

hated that killed her. He doesn't have a creed, race or religion, it

is poisonous. Jo would have no regrets about life. She lived every

day of it to the full. So that quite extraordinary and incredibly

eloquent statement released by Brendan Cox, the husband of Jo Cox,

who has been murdered today. Let me show you next some of the reaction

that we are getting from Westminster. The BBC's Tom Bateman

is live with us. Can you share with some of the thoughts you have been

hearing in Westminster today? You know it is telling that Jo Cox, as

you have been sailing, was a new MP. She was part of the intake into

Parliament when there was a British general election just last year and

she had been elected in the place she was born there in the North of

England with a big majority, but very quickly had become somebody who

played -- Jim Eadie big impression in the British House of Commons, the

parliament here in the UK, she brought really what had been a life

campaigning to her work. She had travelled to places like Uganda, she

had travelled to Darfur, to Afghanistan, and she brought all of

that to her work, and I think it is really telling that the tributes

that have been paid here tonight really reflect on the humanitarian

work that she had done, her care for the Syrian refugees, her support for

the people who have been caught up in the terrible conflict there, and

so, as you have been saying, we have had Jeremy Corbyn, the Leader of the

Opposition Labour Party, talking about the whole Labour Party, and

indeed our democracy in the UK coming together to pay tribute and

of course from Prime Minister David Cameron here who has really

explained why his view it was appropriate to suspend what has been

happening here, that important referendum campaign about Britain's

EU membership, tonight all of that is on hold, politics has paused this

evening while MPs pay tribute to Jo Cox. And I was mentioning a little

bit earlier that today, Jo Cox was going to be holding what we call

eight surgery, an opportunity to meet local constituents and hear

their concerns, and this is right at the core of how all MPs go about

their work here in the UK, isn't it? Yes, that is right, they are called

constituency surgeries and they are really an opportunity for MPs to

meet their constituents, to meet the people that they represent, whose

views they should be bringing to the Houses of Parliament in London and

speaking up for. Now, what tends to happen is MPs, British MPs, will

hold these constituency surgeries, usually on Fridays at the end of the

week, and they will really hear the concerns of local people. It might

be anything, it might be about problems with their housing, about

not being able to pay their bills, about more serious issues that they

think they need to try and get political support about. Now, Jo

Cox, we know was an MP. She was born in that seat is there in West

Yorkshire. She lived there. She described herself as a proud

Yorkshire lass. She knew many of the people who would be coming to her

with their grievances, with their problems, so this is part of the

Democratic, the political process, here in the United Kingdom. There

have been a couple of incidents in the past. MPs being attacked. But in

the last 15 or 16 years, it has happened I think twice only so it

tells you something about the rarity of this kind of event and therefore

the shock that this is bringing and certainly none of those previous

events had anything like the terrible tragic consequences that

have happened tonight. And as the whole country tries to compare this

tragedy, suddenly politics feels a little less important, but none the

less, there will be people around the world wondering what happens now

with the referendum campaign and at what point will it be appropriate

for that to resume? Well, that is the question, of course, and leaders

of the campaign notably the Prime Minister, will have to ponder. I

think obviously for the coming hours, this period of pores and

reflection will continue, as you would expect, but the referendum

here is only a week away. It is next Thursday that British people will go

to the polls to decide whether or not Britain should remain a part of

the European Union or leave it, and so I think clearly there will come a

point where the campaigns feel it appropriate to get that worked

underway again, and clearly there are very packed diaries and lots of

events that were due to be taking place in the next 24 or 48 hours of

that is a decision I expect we will get some kind of guidance on really

by tomorrow, I would have thought. OK, Tom. Thank you very much. That

was Tom, live from Westminster. I am speaking to you from Birstall, a

small market town in the North of England, not far from the city of

Leeds, where earlier the local member of Parliament, Jo Cox, a

member of the opposition Labour Party was murdered in the street.

She was stabbed and she was shot and she died at Leeds General Infirmary

a a few minutes later. Let's talk to a local councillor here in Birstall.

He is joining us live. Thank you very much for being with us. Tell us

your emotions today. Very shocked. This made. -- dismayed. She was a

great woman. It was only last year when she was elected and everybody.

We would get behind her, she is working for us. And she listened to

the people. And she was always there. Even before the election, you

know. Our husband has spoken about her zest for life. Did you feel that

when you met her? Yet, yes. Did she have an energy for getting things

done, for pushing forward the things she believed in? Yes, she was very

excited. She was a great woman. I am sorry that it happened. It shouldn't

have happened. She had life to go on. She was great. Behind us we can

see the police tape and the forensics officers going about their

work and the police keeping that area cordoned off. Could you ever

imagine you would have seen a scene like this in this small town? Last

week, at the same time, there was... I was here at 1:55pm

and I sat down there and police were there and one of the police officers

came to me and he said there had been a big tragedy, Jo Cox has been

stabbed and shot at. I was quiet. I didn't say a word. When you arrived,

just before two p.m., what did you see? Can you describe that for us?

Yes, there was police around there. Her body was down there, but I got

stopped here. The other people were just talking and they were listening

and soon the police came to me and he said she had been taken to the

Leeds hospital. It sounds by all accounts that she had a great

political career ahead of her, that she was going to go in a lot of

places. Of course, of course. I am sorry to lose her. You -- we

appreciate you speaking to us. Thank you very much indeed, councillor. So

that is one perspective here from Birstall. We will bring you

up-to-date with his story, which is dominating the news here in the UK

and to some degree around the world. Here is a report from Carole Walker.

Jo Cox was one of 53 Labour MPs newly elected in 2015. And she

swiftly made a name for herself as a rising star, hugely popular, friends

and colleagues of all parties were shocked and deeply saddened at the

news of her death. Tonight, the Prime Minister led the tributes.

This is absolutely tragic and dreadful news and my thoughts are

with Jo's Husband Brendan and the two children and their wider family.

We have lost a great star. She was a great campaigning MP with huge

compassion, a big heart, and people are going to be very, very sad at

what has happened. Dreadful, dreadful news. It is just over a

year since Jo Cox was sworn in as MP for Batley and Spen. Born and raised

locally, she had studied at Cambridge and was the first in her

family to graduate from university. Before she entered Parliament, Jo

Cox was a passionate charity worker, who had spent a decade in a variety

of roles with the aid agency Oxfam and at Westminster she continued to

campaign on international development and foreign policy. This

is somebody who had spent her whole career not in a bubble somewhere,

but really out in the field, working for Oxfam, of course, and absolutely

understanding how things work out there in the real world and I share

an office with Jo and, well, Parliament will be a much poorer

place. She described herself as a proud Yorkshire lass. In London, she

lived with her husband and children on a barge in the Thames. I am

hoping I will be zipping down to the House of Commons, which is about

half an hour from where I live on the boat. From the outset, her

honesty and determination won her huge respect. I have decided I'm

going to approach being a member of Parliament with a decent and healthy

sense of cynicism and humour. It is very humbling. It is an amazing

building, I am not going to let it intimidate me. And it certainly

didn't. Canny Prime Minister tell the house whether he thinks he has

led public opinion on the refugee crisis or follow that? Away from

Westminster, constituency surgeries and open meetings are an essential

part of the work of MPs. Though referendum campaigning was suspended

today as a mark of respect, several MPs have said the tragic death of a

young and talented colleague must not be allowed to harm the process

of democracy. Carol Walker, BBC News. And there is further coverage

of this story through the BBC News application and the BBC News

website. Well, next year on outside source, I would like to speak to

Alison Scott, who is just joining me. We have only just met but I

assume you live here in Birstall. Tell us when you first heard that

something flat happened. I was at work today in Leeds and it was on

Facebook and that is how we found out, so social media. Jo Cox was a

new MP. She came in in the last general election and she seems to be

incredibly popular. Yes, I think she was. She was very well known by

everybody in Birstall and a very popular figure. She was holding a

surgery just in the library behind us why guess he was taking a regular

and keen interest in how you all are in this town. Absolutely. She was in

the Women campaign and she was talking to local people, as she

would normally have done. Doing her job. When you heard, I assume you

started communicating with people in the town. What did you study here

about what was happening here in the immediate aftermath? We heard there

had been a shooting and a stabbing and at first we heard there was more

than one perpetrator and then we heard it was just one man and that

somebody else had also been injured so of course my first thought was

that I had to make sure that my husband was OK but it was just

incomprehensible that it had happened, absolutely and

compensable, and we are all in shock and our thoughts go to her husband

and her children and the rest of her family. It is a terrible thing.

Terrifying here for some of the kids here because I understand that the

school was locked down for a period of time and the parents could not

pick their children up. The school is just down there on the left-hand

sides of the children would probably have heard the shots. Very, very

close, is extremely worrying for the local businesses, who all had to

close their doors and hope that this would come to an end. There is no

one behind us apart from police because this whole scene is sealed

off, but on a normal Thursday lunchtime, what would Birstall be

like? There is a market, not a very big one, but it is a busy little

town. People just going around, the library is very well used.

Politicians were also by the local area and children and things like

that, so it would have been busy and people just going around so that is

what makes it all the more shocking, really, just a normal day in a

normal smog village that this could happen. Now, the community has to to

go about paying tribute to her and grieving for her. How would you like

that to happen? I think that she needs to be rendered and I am sure

that people will be bringing flowers and remembering her and I hope that

there will be services in all of the local churches to remember her. Y

very much for your time. We appreciate it. Well, that is where

we are going to leave it. If you are just joining me, I am live from

Birstall, a small town in the North of England where today, almost

unimaginably, the local member of Parliament was stabbed and shot. She

was called Jo Cox. She had a husband, Brendan, and two young

children. Although she was taken to a local hospital, she died from her

injuries. We will continue our coverage of this story now with the

help of the BBC's look North