16/06/2016 Scotland 2016

Labour MP Jo Cox dies after she is shot and stabbed

during an attack in her Yorkshire constituency.

EU campaigning is suspended and tributes pour in for

41-year-old MP Jo Cox, who died earlier

today after an attack near her constituency office.

Jo was such a lively, bright, bubbly person with a very infectious sense

of humour and sense of engagement and she would always put such huge

energy behind everything she did. Really committed to helping the most

marginalised and the poorest around the world and that has always been

the Jo I know. And Lord Coe won the presidency

of Athletics' world governing body, with the help of the man

at the centre of the sport's doping scandal, according to a BBC

Scotland investigation. Did you mislead Parliament? Did you

take advice when he was accused of corruption? It is a very simple

question. "She went to some of the most

dangerous places in the world. The last place she should have been

in danger was in her home town." The words of former Prime Minister

Gordon Brown about Jo Cox, who he worked alongside

on poverty campaigns. The mother of two young children

and MP for Batley and Spen, in Yorkshire, was shot and stabbed

earlier today on her way This report from Huw Williams

contains some flash photography. Just before 1pm today, Jo Cox, MP

for Batley and Spen... Confirmation came at five p.m.. I am now sad to

report she has dry as a result of her injuries. Police have launched

an investigation. This is a very significant investigation with large

numbers of witnesses to be spoken to at this time. There is a large and

significant crime scene and a large police presence in the area.

Political leaders from all parties expressed their shock and sent

condolences to the family. We have lost a great start. She was a great

campaigning MP with huge compassion and a big heart. People are going to

be very sad at what has happened, dreadful news. The First Minister

Nicola Sturgeon said this is utterly shocking and tragic news.

We come together at a time like this, we come together to support

the family and to mourn and reflect that violence is not an answer to

anything. She has devoted her life to public service and tackling

inequality not just in the UK but around the world and she went into

work to do her job today and was representing her constituents and

has faced a violent act that has taken her life. I declare that the

said Jo Cox is duly elected member of Parliament... She was only

elected one year ago. I have decided I'm going to approach being a member

of Parliament with a healthy sense of humour. It is an amazing building

but I will not let intimidate me. Local people have been left

struggling to know how to understand it. A lovely and caring person and a

few aspirin then she would answer honestly, just lovely. Soon after

they attacked a 52-year-old man was arrested and Yorkshire police say at

the moment they are not looking for anyone else. Both sides have

suspended campaigning as a mark of respect and those who knew Jo Cox

through working alongside her have been remembering their friends. She

was such a lively and bright person, an infectious sense of humour and

always positive and would put such huge energy behind everything she

did. Really committed to helping the most marginalised, the poorest

families and children around the world and that has always been the

Jo I know. Tonight, Jo Cox's husband Brendan said in a statement...

Apologies, it is a 52-year-old man in police custody.

Our Westminster Correspondent David Porter is in our Oxford studio.

We see MPs and parliamentary staff gathered tonight an individual. I

gather it has been a pretty sombre mood ever since the news broke. A

very sombre mood. Parliamentarians and staff have been gathering in

front of the House of Commons, some are known as Parliament Square which

is a stretch of grass outside the Houses of Parliament. I think they

thought that was the most appropriate place to gather.

Westminster is in a very strange mood at the moment. Normally it is a

very noisy and load place with the cut and thrust of political debate.

Because we are now in the final stages of the referendum campaign

many MPs are not at Westminster, but those who have been at Westminster,

the overriding emotion has been one of shock and revulsion. When news

started to emanate just after 1pm today, MP still at Westminster

started to ask questions and I think many realise the seriousness of what

had happened when Jo Cox's husband published a picture of her

mid-afternoon Allsop it was in effect a tribute and it was only

later news was announced that she had dry. Those who work at

Westminster are used to massive security. When you add in the

parliamentary estate it is a very secure area. There are police with

guns wandering around and people feel safe with them the

parliamentary estate but MPs like all elected politicians have to meet

members of the general public. It is part of their job and there are many

people at Westminster tonight who are reflecting that one of their

own, one of the Westminster family, has been taken from them in the most

dreadful circumstances. She was going about her constituency work

when this happened and it must raise concerns among MPs about security

because that is part of the job? MPs, like many people, meet members

of the public and many people's jobs involve that including journalists

and things like that, but with it differs as they have two invite

people into the offices and lives because to be an MP you have to

represent a constituency and you want to hear from your constituents

and surgeries and things are often advertised on the Internet and local

newspapers saw constituents can go and meet them and question them. You

often find they have open surgeries and people can arrive, often quite

agitated, because they have issues they want to raise that perhaps they

have not been able to get sorted out otherwise. When they are at

Westminster the had any security bubble but when they go out they are

available for all to talk to and sometimes in quite strong terms. It

goes with the nature of the job and the territorial of whether you are

an MP or MSP or even an elected local councillor. She wanted

interact with those who have returned you to office but I think

there will be a number of people who will be saying that perhaps in

future, we have to look at this again and look at security

arrangements. Mercifully, this is rear and have been incidents in

recent years, Stephen Timms was attacked and Nigel Jones, a Liberal

Democrat, was actually seriously hurt in his constituency office in

Cheltenham. One of his caseworkers was killed. But mercifully, these

incidents are rare indeed. And just briefly, this has had a big impact

on the referendum campaign? It has, and campaigning mid-afternoon was

suspended by both sides and that was an indication of just quite how

seriousness was. We understand that basically campaigning will be

suspended again tomorrow and will not get underway until the weekend.

There have already been changes tonight and the Mansion house speech

the Chancellor and the Governor of the Bank of England were going to

the lover, that has been changed. Flags at Westminster are flying at

half-mast and we have a by-election in tooting. During the counting of

that at some point there will be a two-minute silence. We have the EU

referendum and that is so vitally important, that will get underway,

but for the next 24 hours there will be a period of reflection in which

everyone at Westminster will realise, whether the new Jo or not,

she was one of Westminster's own and an awful lot of MPs and staff who

work for MPs will be wondering, could that have happened to me?

He's a double Olympic gold medallist and the architect

But tonight, Lord Coe finds himself the subject of allegations

that he won the presidency of world athletics' governing body,

the IAAF, with the help of the man at the centre

Text messages seen by a BBC investigation suggest former IAAF

consultant Papa Massata Diack secured votes for Lord Coe.

The Panorama programme also suggests that Lord Coe may have

Here's BBC Scotland's investigations correspondent Mark Daly.

It was Lord call's crowning moment, becoming president of the sport he

graced as an athlete. But soon athletics and the IAAF was that the

centre of a corruption scandal. He said he was in the dark although he

had been a vice president of the IAAF for the preceding eight years.

I was not aware of the specific allegations that had been made

around the corruption of anti-doping processes and Russia. But that he

mislead Parliament? Panorama can reveal Lord Coe was sent a dossier

of the corruption claims being investigated by the ethics

commission four months before the scandal erupted in public. But there

is more. Senegal, from where fresh questions emerged around whether one

of the men at the centre of the corruption claims helped Lord Coe

when the election. He came to meet me in Beijing before the elections.

Text messages between Papa Massata Diack and Lord Coe and his

right-hand man Nick Davies suggest Papa Massata Diack was giving

campaign advice and helping to secure votes.

And the night before the vote. Lord Coe, good morning. Can I ask you a

few questions? Why were you so close to Papa Massata Diack in the run-up

to your presidential election? At this point you knew that he was

accused of the most serious corruption that athletics has ever

seen. Can I ask, did you mislead Parliament? Did you take political

campaign advice from Papa Massata Diack when he was accused of

corruption? It is a simple question, yes or no? Thank you very much. If

you want to be drawn on the past and what he knew and can come up with a

compelling argument, I don't see how he can continue to be president of

the IAAF because he would like public support to do so. Lord Coe

has since told the BBC he was forwarded e-mails but didn't open

the attachment. He said he sent them onto the IAAF's ethics committee

elected to them to investigate it. He says suggestions he sought Papa

Massata Diack's support were wrong and that many people would offer

advice and he was civil. Tomorrow in Vienna the IAAF will announce

whether Russian athletes are able to compete in the Olympics following

the doping scandal but perhaps more than ever all eyes will be on its

president. And Mark Daly is with me

here in the studio now. There have been a lot of twists and

turns, but this latest chapter does call Lord Coe's judgment into

question. Some of the people I spoke to believe that an Lord Coe's

judgment will be on display like that no other time like it will be

tomorrow. Tomorrow is the biggest decision the IAAF has had to make

under Lord Coe. It will announce whether or not Russian athletes will

be allowed to compete. This is off the back of the doping scandal which

has exploded over the last 18 months. This is about

state-sponsored doping in Russia. Russia are currently suspended from

competition. The Russians went back into the frame in time for the Rio

Olympics and tomorrow, IAAF will decide whether they can do that.

Russia was supposed to have been getting its house in order over the

last six months, but there is a drip of stories coming out, for examples,

a documentary team and another report suggesting all is still not

well within Russia. The world anti-grouping agency reported that

700 testers were unable to carry out tests in Russia because they were

being blocked. All these things considered means that tomorrow, it

is probably not going to be a very difficult decision to make and that

the ban on Russia will be upheld but the complication is the IAAF do

decide to ban Russia from the Olympics is that some people are

predicting there may be some sort of fudge where athletes from Russia

will still be allowed to compete and they may be allowed to compete under

an international Olympic Committee banner. If that happens, criticism

will rain down on all fronts. Tomorrow a huge day for Lord Coe.

Wild athletics really does seem to have a bit of an image problem.

Wasn't said Coe meant to be the man to sort that out? Yes, and his

arrival at IAAF was greeted with great fanfare because some saw him

as a clean break from what had gone on before. Our investigations show

he appears to be very close with the previous regime. He lavished praise

on the outgoing president within a few weeks of him being arrested on

corruption charges. His son is on the run from Interpol and it emerged

that he appeared to have been given Lord Coe political advice and even

helping him own votes. That is one thing. The other issue and some

believe a more serious one for Lord Coe is whether he misled Parliament

over what he knew about these corruption allegations. The Russian

doping is one thing but the corruption allegations are what

catapulted athletics into the mess it is in and these allegations word

that senior IAAF officials conspired to extort athletes to cover up their

doping and allow them to continue to compete, and these allegations were

sent directly to Lord Coe and tonight he said he did not open

those e-mails, simply forwarded them on. Some do not accept that and the

culture media and sport committee may not accept that explanation and

may want him back to explain himself.

And you can see that Panorama Special, Seb Coe

and the Corruption Scandal, on the BBC iPlayer.

In the wake of MP Jo Cox's death, the Irish Prime Minister has

expressed his deepest sympathies to her family on social media.

Enda Kenny will be in Scotland tomorrow for a meeting

of the British Irish council, hosted by the First Minister.

EU campaigning has been suspended and there will be a minute's silence

With Ireland being Britain's closest neighbour and a week to go

till the EU referendum, the possibility of a Brexit vote

Joining me now by video link from Dublin is Harry Mcgee,

political correspondent with The Irish Times.

Good evening. As you know, EU campaigning here has been suspended,

but what do you expect and Kenny to say if and when the referendum comes

up tomorrow? The message the Irish government has been giving has been

nuanced in that they have said they are not actively taking part within

the campaign, but when you drill down the language, it has a clear

message and that is that Britain within the EU is good not only for

Britain but also good for Ireland and Mr Kenny, the Prime Minister, is

only one of about six or seven ministers who have visited the UK in

the past two weeks to hammer home that message we have had. The

Minister for foreign affairs and public expenditure and other

ministers who visited Northern Ireland, London, Liverpool and Leeds

and now Mr Kenny himself visiting Scotland tomorrow. What are the main

concern is that if Britain does vote to leave? There are two deep

concerns in Ireland. The first is an economic one. There is over 1

billion euros of trade between Ireland and Britain every single

week, so it is our biggest trading partner and the last of Britain from

the EU would have severe ramifications for that as with

devaluation of sterling. The other concerns the border with Northern

Ireland. At the moment that is open, it is invisible. There is common

travel between Ireland and Britain and even those who have been

campaigning for Britain to leave have said that situation will

change. Vista Kenny say they doubt that situation will continue to

exist because Ireland will become an EU border and he said that he fails

to see how some form of customs or border control cannot be

reintroduced, so that is a real concern for the Irish government

even though it has been played down by those who are urging Britain to

leave. Is it a view that a Brexit could be good for the country? There

are some contrary views. It does not come from politicians. There is an

independent MTP, Luke Flanagan, who has made the argument that Europe is

unaccountable, unelectable, that Brussels costs billions of euros and

does not give value for money and that Ireland might be better off as

a sovereign entity with some ties to Europe, but not as a member of the

European Union. A very prominent economist in Ireland has also said

if Brexit were to occur, Ireland could get a short-term bounce in

that foreign direct investment. Might be redirected to Ireland on

the basis that it is still within the EU and not outside, so there

argues that have been expressed, minority views but they are held by

some. Thank you. Here with me now to discuss some

of the day's main news is Scottish Political Editor

of the Times, Lindsay McIntosh, and the Political Editor

of the Herald, Magnus Gardham. Let's go back to our stop story. The

killing of MP Jo Cox. She was clearly Walmart and very respected.

She was. The tributes are incredibly eloquent and really talk very much

of the woman that she was. These are in no way kind of platitudes. They

talk about a woman who really cared what she was doing, cared about her

constituents, the issues she was campaigning on, was a very much

loved wife and mother. What really struck me was from her husband. A

brief tribute that he makes. One was from Andrew Mitchell who talked

about how un-partisan she was unwanted to work across the parties

about issues and one was from the Yorkshire Post, a young woman who

talks about how inspirational Jo was to her and for women from an

ordinary background. We are very used to hearing criticism of MPs,

reviled as expensive scandals but this story brings home the sort of

work they do in their constituencies and how vulnerable they are.

Absolutely. And M SPCA said yesterday, everybody hates

politicians and she said that in such a matter of fact way that I was

rather taken aback. The appropriate response is to agree or disagree

with a politician, but this casual, lazy despising of politicians is a

terrible thing and I do hope this will serve to remind people that the

vast bulk of what politicians do is to turn up to libraries, community

centres, to hold surgeries and to sort out routine, everyday problems

for the people they represent. If anything comes out of this, I hope

it is that. Inevitably, people are already talking about how security

can be improved, but I wonder if there is very much you can do to

prevent a situation like this happening. Conversations like that

are for another day. Today is very much about Jo Cox and the role she

played for her constituents that we have been talking about, as the days

go by maybe we start to have those conversations. It has been reported

that the man arrested was born in Kilmarnock. But he moved to West

Yorkshire some 40 years ago. The details of the whole incident are

still pretty unclear, but there is some suggestion it was politically

motivated. That must be a concern. We have to be really careful because

as you say, we don't know the full circumstances yet. If it turns out

there is some kind of political motivation behind this, however

warped or twisted, it is yet again another reminder that serious and

sensitive debate that we are having on issues like immigration are

debates that need to be happening in a rational and sensible way, in a

way that is unlikely to inflame hatred and things like that. Like I

say, we have to be careful about jumping to conclusions at the moment

because the circumstances are still quite hazy. Inevitably it will have

a bit of an impact over the next week. Already for good reason,

campaigning has been suspended but it's hard to see that level of

rhetoric can be ramped up to the level it was at just before all of

this happened. Of course. The campaigning on both sides has been

suspended today and rightly so. We have seen that the kind of

understandable shock at Westminster and the rest of the country and

obviously that will continue. increase the number of armed police

officers by a third following the concerns would not be equipped to

deal with a major terror attack. How sensitive is this issue of arming

the police in Scotland is? We know it is sensitive because a couple of

years ago, there was an outcry when it turned out that our police were

being deployed on fairly routine duties, particularly in the

Highlands and there needed to be refreshed guidance to the police

that that should not happen. It is a sensitive issue and I think the

sensitivity was borne out by the fact this wasn't announced by the

police. It is clearly an operational matter for the police but the

Justice Secretary saw fit to make a very thorough statement in the

Scottish Parliament today. Is there a concern that this might lead to

mission creep? We have to be very aware of the risk and that was the

problem that happened some two years ago. Routine arming was happening

and the public was not aware. What happened today is clearly an effort

at real transparency from the police and from our elected members to say,

look, this is policing with concern, we are telling you what is happening

here and white. Has there been a shift in public attitudes to

increase security? Possibly there has. The Justice Secretary

referenced the very shocking atrocities that we have seen since

Charlie Hebdo in Belgium, Orlando recently and the succession of these

is a big factor. People are much more accepting. I will have to leave

it there. Thanks very much. That is it for tonight. Goodbye.