20/06/2016 Monday in Parliament

Hello and welcome to a special edition of Monday in Parliament,

as MPs and Peers are recalled to Westminster

who was killed in her constituency last week.

It was a sombre, solemn day at Westminster as MPs and Peers

gathered, still numbed by the news and the nature of Jo Cox's death.

The 41-year-old was shot and stabbed to death

Since then, there have been a flood of tributes.

Flowers have been placed outside Westminster and in her home town

and constituency of Batley and Spen, bouquets have been laid by friends,

family, politicians and local people in a public outpouring

Before we hear the many powerful and moving tributes to Jo Cox,

let's look back over her time as an MP.

The Labour MP for Batley and Spen arrived in Westminster in May 2015.

She served as an MP for 13 months but in that short time,

She gave her first speech in the House of Commons

The convention is for MPs to talk about their constituencies

For Jo Cox, that meant talking about the place

It is a joy to represent such a diverse community.

Batley Spen is a gathering of typically independent,

no-nonsense, proud Yorkshire towns and villages.

Our communities have been deeply enhanced by immigration,

be it Irish Catholics across the constituency or Muslims

from India or Pakistan, principally from Kashmir.

And whilst we celebrate our diversity, the thing that

surprises me, time and time again, as I travel around the constituency,

is that we are far more united and have far more in common

Batley is a town that has sent Labour MPs to this place

One of those, Dr Broughton, is, of course, famously credited

So, I, respectfully, put the right honourable

members on the front bench opposite on notice.

As the first member of her family to go to university,

education was an issue very close to her heart.

She led a debate on the need to improve schools in Yorkshire.

It is now clear that where you were born has become

a more powerful predictive factor of your performance

Yorkshire and the Humber are a stark example of this.

Tragically, for our children, the region has gone from fifth

lowest achieving in the 1970s to the worst in England today,

with nearly one quarter of the children attending schools

Before becoming an MP, Jo Cox was an aid worker

and so she is, perhaps, best known for her campaigning

on behalf on Syrian people afflicted by the civil war.

We also know that, as that conflict enters

Syrian families have been forced to make an impossible decision -

stay and face starvation, rape, persecution and death,

or make a perilous journey to find sanctuary elsewhere.

And who can blame desperate parents for wanting

to escape the horrors that their families

A reality in which children are being killed on the way

to school, where children as young as seven are being recruited

for the front line, where children have

grown up knowing nothing but fear and war.

These children have been exposed to things no child should

I know I would personally risk life and limb to get

my two precious babies out of that hellhole.

The speech in Parliament was last month. She had called for

international action with regard to the conflict in Syria.

While I am a huge fan of President Obama, and worked

with him in North Carolina in 2008, I believe

that both President Obama and the Prime Minister made the biggest

misjudgements in their time in office

when they put Syria on the Too Difficult pile.

Instead of engaging fully, they withdrew and put their

This judgment, made by both leaders for different reasons, will, I

believe, be judged harshly by history.

It has been nothing short of a foreign policy disaster.

But there is still time for both men to write a

postscript to this failure, so does the Minister agree

that it is time for the leaders of both our

countries, even in the midst of a hotly-contested campaign,

to launch a joint, bold initiative to protect civilians,

to get aid to besieged communities and for us to throw our

weight behind the fragile peace talks before they fail?

I don't believe that either President Obama or

the Prime Minister tried to do harm in Syria,

but as it has been said, sometimes, all it takes for evil

to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Jo Cox, making her last speech in the House of Commons in May.

And so to those tributes to a widely respected MP.

campaigning in the EU referendum on hold.

Jo Cox's husband, children and family looked on from the gallery.

MPs wore the white rose of Yorkshire,

while several women Labour members dressed in purple and green,

MPs from all parties packed the chamber to mourn

Many cried openly, as the Speaker John Bercow began the tributes.

Colleagues, we meet here today in heartbreaking sadness, but

Any death in such awful circumstances is an

Yet this this death, in this manner, of this person,

our democratically-elected colleague, Jo Cox, is particularly

The white rose of Yorkshire and the red rose of Labour

marked the spot in the Commons where Jo Cox usually sat.

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke next.

Jo Cox did not just believe in loving her neighbour.

She believed in loving her neighbour's neighbour.

She believed every life counted equally.

The whole country has been united in grief.

And united in rejecting the well of hatred hatred that killed her,

in what increasingly appears to have been an act of

We are filled with sorrow for her husband Brendan

But they can be so proud of everything she was, all she

Jo's grieving husband Brendan said, "Jo believed

in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life,

with an energy and a zest for life which would exhaust most people."

And a passion to create a better world.

In her honour, Mr Speaker, we recommit ourselves to that task.

We are here today to remember an extraordinary colleague

Jo Cox was a voice of compassion, whose irrepressible

spirit and boundless energy lit up the lives of all who knew her.

And she also saved the lives of many she never even met.

She was doing what she did so brilliantly - bravely

working in one of the most dangerous parts of the world,

Her decision to welcome me, then the Conservative

Leader of the Opposition, Had not been entirely welcomed by all her

But it was typical of her determination on issues that she was

keen to cross party claims that she welcomed me. She was a passionate

and brilliant campaigner who had the determination to fight for justice

saw her driving issues up the agenda and making people listen and act. As

the Leader of the Opposition said, this Wednesday would have been her

42nd birthday. She should have been celebrating her birthday by hosting

her traditional summer solstice party, a remained other behind the

professional was a fun loving mother, sister, wife and friends.

And then it was over to representatives of other parties

and friends on the back benches to pay their tributes, with many

heartfelt and emotional stories painting a picture of the MP's life.

It is ironic that after travelling the world to some of the most

damaging and dangerous places in the world, she died in her constituency.

She died in a place that she loved in a place where she loved serving

the community. She wanted to live the life that she wanted, but she

had so much more that she could've achieved. The constituency will

elect a new MP, but we cannot replace her as a mother.

A Conservative International Development Secretary

got to know her through her former role as an aid worker.

Making common cause with the crusty old conservative, we became

courtiers of the friends of Syria. We have very invited herself to tea

with the Russian ambassador. With charm but steely determination,

despite the bundle of Yorkshire common sense, she dressed down for

the cynicism in Syria. I do not believe the Russian ambassador will

easily forget that visit. Harriet Harman touched

on another passion - Jo's work to get more women

elected to parliament, and her role as chair

of the Labour women's network. Not long after she had her son, she

came to give me one of these regular briefings. She did not stop kissing

him all the way through the meeting. She was still the for all the women

who were still trying to become candidates.

Another friend said, like a lot of MPs,

I remember her and her cycling kit, leaving others are wondering where

she got the energy. I remember her capturing the moment of horror

becoming a new MP, with one of children the shoot in the river.

She quoted another Labour MP, Anna Turley.

Burning brightly and lighting up the night, giving sparks of positive

energy for over she went. Mr Speaker, she was the heart and soul

of these benches and we are heartbroken. We will miss her every

day. We will do everything in our power to make her family incredibly

proud. An SNP MP had worked

with her at the charity Oxfam. She was connected to her Yorkshire

roots. She was proud of where she was from, but no conviction between

that and caring about the lives of people on the other side of the

world. We often witnessed that in Parliament as well, where she fought

for refugee children fleeing Syria, and people in her own constituency

growing up in poverty. It was those deep, strong roots in our own

Yorkshire community that allowed her to branch out arms around the world

and show much love. I was or is a bit envious. She was energetic,

brave, dynamic, fit, beautiful, passionate. I cannot ever recall

seeing her sad, negative or without hope. She once told me, in a

one-to-one meeting at Oxfam, she did not do touch-feely and I was being

too emotional, and we needed to get on with it.

LAUGHTER We needed to sort out the campaign

we were working on. Another friend spoke of her work

to get women elected to Parliament. She did it not by hectoring or

lecturing, but by believing in the goodness of others. As our friend

has written, half holding you are bright, half showing you forward.

That was what it meant to have her arm around your shoulder. And how we

long for those arms around our shoulder today. For one more hard.

And definitely for one more smile. -- for one more hug.

As we've been hearing, Jo Cox will be remembered

not just at Westminster but by communities around the world.

The Northern Ireland Assembly began its working week

The First Minister, Arlene Foster, led the way, describing this

as a very sad day for politics in the United Kingdom.

Let us remember the words of President Kennedy, that civility is

not a sign of weakness, and that this drivel I don't can bring a new

civility to politics. Not just for a few days, but can be seen to make a

new start to how politics is done. Let it inspire all of us, to insure

the, what we have come through, during the course of the conflict

here, that we continue to work together as a positive and

constructive spirit, and as a spirit of generosity with each other to

insure we continue to move forward, and be an example, as we have been

to many other conflicts throughout the world, in relation to the

resolution of conflict. As well as an personal and family tragedy, it

was an attack on democracy, and it would be remiss to remember -- not

to remember... Jo Cox was the first female MP to be murdered. The

Northern Irish MP was murdered in 1981. He was serving his

constituents, holding a surgery in a community centre in Belfast. He was

gunned down, along with a council worker, I believe, a worker from

that community centre, also murdered on a very black day. I think the

best legacy she could ever have hoped to leave would be a whole new

generation of people inspired to care about the campaign for the

rights of the downtrodden. Back at Westminster,

and in the House of Lords, Jo Cox was described as an "angel",

exceptional, a unique talent. But as peers mourned her death

there was anger too at the "vitriol and violence" some feared

was contaminating public life. Marking her death a tragic and

unfair as it is, present at least one opportunity for the sake of good

democracy, and it is this. For those of us who know how hard MPs work to

raise awareness of their commitment to the people they represent. Our

democracy will be seriously undermined and weekend if this

outrage stops our brightest and our best from stepping forward into

public life. When good people of passion and principal tell their

family and their friends they want to be a counsellor or member of

Parliament I want their families to be proud of them, not to fear for

them. Yet the level of vitriol and violence contaminating our public

and political life will deter some of the best people that we need the

most. We pray that she will rest in peace, and her family will find

peace. I pray that Birstall will be remembered more with the manner of

her living than with the manner of her dying. As we look to the future,

from these benches, we would say with confidence that death, violence

and destruction cannot and will not have the final word.

The Labour peer, Lady Kinnock, is a former MEP.

Jo Cox had worked for her at the European Parliament

She said their close friendship had enriched her life.

Happily, she was no saint. She was mischievous, Merry, irreverent, as

well as focused, determined, resilient and brave. My Lords, I

feel cheated by the loss of this precious, valiant young woman. Our

country and our world has been robbed of a unique talent, a glowing

spirit of progress, enlightenment and emancipation was up I was not

sure whether I should speak today, unlike others, I only knew to know

her -- only grew to know her in the last year. They are to be shocked at

the waste of the lovely, warm, vibrant, effective, honest and

special politician who belonged to the people of Batley and Spen, and

the worry, what have we done to create a world where this can

happen? A Lib Dem had been due

to meet Jo Cox on Thursday. An awful, barbaric attack on her.

The huge, overwhelming sense of loss of a special person whose life was

so brutally cut short. And, yes, a sense of anger that our democracy

had been violently this matched. We talked a little about the starving

in the Syrian cities, we talked about how we could make politics

more sensible, and how we could deliver on her passion, expressed in

her maiden speech to celebrate diversity. She insisted that I sent

her a poem, which she was the be moved by. She insisted I send it to

her. I confess, I forgot. I will quote it now, I think it sums up the

life cut too tragically short but lived text ordinarily well. It goes

like this. We are all the more one because we are many. We have left an

ample space for love in the gap where we were sundered. Our unlike

this shines with a radiance of a common creation, like mountain peaks

in the morning sun. Those were the values for which she lived her life

of those were the values for which may have died. If we are able to do

our best to lives of those values, our politics will be better, how

nation for successful, and our civilisation far more secure.

The former Labour leader and European Commissioner,

Neil Kinnock, brought the tributes to a close,

saying when he'd heard of her death he'd felt misery and hatred.

Then I realised that my outrage was the useless. Not for the first time,

I recognised that hate cannot be beaten with hatred. Jo Cox will have

said, do not hate in my name. She might even have quoted Gandhi, an

aye for an aye makes the whole world blind.

Well, we heard there from Glenys and Neil Kinnock.

Their son, Stephen, became an MP in 2015,

Having known each other for years, the pair shared an office.

So let's go back to the Commons for one last tribute from him.

Joe used to use my cupboard as a wardrobe. I will never forget her

dashing around in her cycling gear, grabbing her clothes and shouting

something over her shoulder about her latest project for campaign. She

often brought her lovely children into the office with her and if I

was lucky, I would get a dinosaur drawing or a chance to read them a

story. They are wonderful kids who are truly bathed in love. Mr

Speaker, the fearless Jo Cox never stopped fighting for what is right.

She gave voice to the voiceless, she spoke truth to power. She exhibit

five the best values about party and our country. Compassion, community,

solidarity and internationalism. She put her convictions to work for

everyone she touched. For the people of Batley and Spen, for the wretched

of Syria, were victims of violence and injustice everywhere. She

understood that rhetoric has consequences. When insecurity, fear

and anger are used to light the fuse, then an explosion is

inevitable. In the deeply moving tribute Brendan Cox made last

Thursday, he urged the British people to unite and fight against

the hatred that killed her. It is the politics of division and fear,

the harking back to in century slogans and the rhetoric of Britain

first that twists patriotism from love of country into an ugly

loathing of others. Mr Speaker, we must now stand up for something

better because of someone better. In the name of Jo Cox and all that is

decent, we must not let this atrocity harm all that is the Saint.

We must build a respectful and united country because this is a

time to build the legacy of the Yorkshire lass who devoted her life

to the common good and who was so cruelly taken away from us in the

prime of her life to stop Jo Cox, we love you, we salute you, and we

shall never forget you. Well, when MPs' tributes were over,

members of the Commons filed out of the chamber to a rare

and sustained round of applause. They were leaving to attend

a service of memorial at the neighbouring

church of St Margarets where, together with Peers,

they joined in a service There were words from the Archbishop

of Canterbury, Justin Welby, reflecting on what the many

and varied tributes revealed. There was a poetry reading

from Glenys Kinnock, who we saw earlier,

who had been a close friend. There was a reading

from the Book of Deuteronomy from the Commons

Speaker, John Bercow. The Commons Chaplain, Rose Hudson

Wilkin took up the service. For all of us, of faith or no faith,

of whatever creed or culture, whatever is true, whatever is

honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, what ever is

pleasing, what ever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if

there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things. Keep on doing

the things that you have learned and received from Jo Cox, and the Art of

peace will be with you. -- and the God of peaceful.

The Commons Chaplain with the final word of tribute to Jo Cox.

And we leave you with MPs and Peers raising their voices in song