PHOTOS: Court shown gun and knife allegedly used in killing of Jo Cox

YORKSHIRE MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death in “planned and pre-meditated murder for a political and/or ideological cause”, a trial jury at the Old Bailey was told today.

Opening the case against accused Thomas Mair, prosecutors said Mrs Cox was ‘brutally murdered’ by the defendant, who was heard to repeatedly say “Britain First” during the attack.

The gun used was a .22 weapon, which had been adapted, the court in London was told, and Mair also used a dagger-like knife in the attack - both pictured here.

The incident took place while Mrs Cox was performing her role as an MP in Birstall.

Richard Whittam QC, opening the trial this afternoon, said: “Thomas Mair’s intention was to kill her in what was a planned and pre-meditated murder for a political and/or ideological cause.”

Every effort was made to save Mrs Cox’s life and an emergency thoracotomy, where an incision is made into the chest wall, was performed as she lay in the street, the court heard.

The jury was told that Bernard Carter Kenny, a 77-year-old local man, risked his life in an effort to save that of Mrs Cox and was stabbed once by the defendant with the same knife he had used to stab the mother-of-two.

Mr Whittam told jurors: “As she arrived she was brutally murdered by one of her constituents, this defendant, Thomas Mair.

“It was a cowardly attack by a man armed with a firearm and a knife.

“Jo Cox was shot three times and suffered multiple stab wounds.

“During the course of the murder Thomas Mair was heard by a number of witnesses to say repeatedly ‘Britain First’.”

Thomas Mair, 53, allegedly shot and stabbed the 41-year-old outside her constituency surgery in Birstall, near Leeds, on June 16.

He is charged with Mrs Cox’s murder, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon - a dagger.

Mair, from Birstall, is also charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Bernard Carter-Kenny on the same date.

He denies all the charges against him.