Jo Cox: there would be 'no better' person for current political climate, MPs say in moving tribute
Communities minister Alison McGovern said that moment that the now Chancellor Rachel Reeves came over to tell her in Parliament that Jo Cox had been murdered “remains the worst moment of my life in politics”.
There is “no better person” to face the current political climate of polarisation than Jo Cox, MPs have said as they paid emotional tributes to their friend in the House of Commons.
Former Home Office minister Jess Phillips, who was part of the 2015 intake of Labour MPs alongside Ms Cox, said the Batley and Spen MP had tried to create a “girls club” in her tragically short time in Parliament, in contrast to the current “boys club” in Westminster.
Ms Cox was shot and stabbed by neo-Nazi Thomas Mair in her Batley and Spen constituency on June 16, 2016, days before the EU referendum.
In the Commons on Thursday as part of a debate ahead of the 10th anniversary of the murder, Ms Phillips criticised those who are “using people’s deaths in order to sell their political narrative”.
This comes after disorder in Southampton following the death of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, who was killed by Vickrum Digwa in December.
Ms Phillips said: “They should be ashamed of themselves, if anything you say and do does not drive forward a good outcome for our country, do not do it, do not say it.”
She spoke while next to Ms Cox’s sister Kim Leadbeater who now represents Spen Valley, the seat where the pair grew up.
Tissues had been passed around the chamber as MPs spoke on the legacy of Ms Cox in the session organised by Ms Leadbeater.
Opening the debate, communities minister Alison McGovern remembered the moment that the now Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the Leeds West and Pudsey MP, came over to tell her in Parliament that Ms Cox had been murdered.
“It remains the worst moment of my life in politics,” she said.
“That someone so courageous and strong, someone small in stature but enormous in spirit, should be killed like that is as horrific today as it was in that moment.”
Continuing, Ms Phillips said she often thinks “what would Jo do now? What would Jo say in this circumstance?”.
She added: “I can think of no better person who could be here right now in the politics that we face today than Jo.
“There’s been a lot of talk recently about the boys club in politics, and we’ve seen a little bit behind some curtains, and what she definitely was trying to do was make a girls club.
“She would try and make sure that you were introduced to the right people in things that you were interested in, that she’d heard you talking about. If she had a connection, she wanted you to have it.
“But the greatest connection that Jo gave me was to invite me into her family.”
Ms Phillips said she visited Ms Cox’s family after resigning as a minister last month and when she lost her sister-in-law.
“They are the most important legacy that Jo has, and I am eternally grateful that in the moment when we first arrived here together, she tried to make sure that we had connections, that nobody would be lonely, that somewhere would always be available for you to have a cup of tea,” she added.
Wes Streeting also paid tribute to his late friend, describing her as a “real troublemaker in the best possible way”.
The former health secretary added: “We know that people aren’t born perfect, but nor are they born bad, and the whole point of life is to try and aspire to be a better person, and to leave something better behind us.
“And, my goodness, did our friend Jo do that.”
Conservative former minister Sir Andrew Mitchell, who co-chaired the all-party parliamentary group for Friends of Syria in the Commons with Ms Cox, remembered the Batley and Spen MP confronting the Russian ambassador over the bombing of Aleppo.
He said the pair used to have “a rather useful good cop, bad cop routine”.
“Needless to say, Jo relished the bad cop role, especially when confronting the villains of the piece, and believe me when I say that she took no prisoners,” he said.
Mr Mitchell and Ms Cox were having a cup of tea with the Russian ambassador, over his army’s bombing of the Syrian rebel stronghold of Aleppo.
“During the meeting, Jo did most of the hard-ball talking, and at the end of it she had triumphantly reduced a seasoned diplomat to incoherence, laying bare his inability to defend the indefensible,” he told MPs.
“I very much doubt he will ever forget that meeting.”