THE husband of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox has revealed his heartache at telling their children that he “couldn’t bring mummy back.”

The mum-of-two was shot and stabbed outside her constituency surgery at Birstall Library on June 16 last year by far right extremist Thomas Mair who yelled “Britain First” as he attacked her.

The 41-year-old’s death as she tried to protect her assistants shocked the country and in November Mair was jailed for life for her murder.

As her widower Brendan Cox prepares for the first anniversary of her death he has talked about her terrible death and its impact.

His book, Jo Cox – More in Common, is being serialised this week in the Daily Mirror.

Book Cover: Jo Cox - More In Common
Book Cover: Jo Cox - More In Common

Brendan, 37, was in London where the family lived in a houseboat when he first heard Jo had been hurt in her constituency.

He immediately jumped on a train to Leeds and it was during that journey that he received the devastating call from Jo’s sister Kim Leadbeater that she had died.

On the sensation of hearing the news, he said: “It feels like an explosion or a hand grenade going off inside you.

“And then you’re a just a shell really and retreat into shock mixed with collapse.”

Brendan then faced the anguish of breaking the news to their young children Cuillin, then five, and Lejla, three, without using “metaphors and mysteries.”

Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered MP Jo Cox
Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered MP Jo Cox

He recalled: “They asked questions about what had happened and I just answered them as honestly as I could.

“I had to say, no, I couldn’t dream up a way to bring Mummy back to us.

“I explained to Cuillin that his good idea that scientists might be able to inject life into her wouldn’t work.

“We also couldn’t make a new version of Mummy out of wood, as Lejla had suggested, and we weren’t going to see her in another world.

“I told them that Jo was gone but that she lived on in our hearts and heads.”

Jo Cox, former Labour MP for Batley and Spen, who was killed last year
Jo Cox, former Labour MP for Batley and Spen, who was killed last year

Following a suggestion by Brendan’s sister Stacia, the family wrote down their favourite memories of Jo on coloured paper and hung them on an apple tree in their garden.

The gesture seemed to help and little Cuillin even made up a song in memory of his mother.

Brendan has since been asked by his children many times why Mair killed their mum.

He explained: “I say ‘Mummy wanted to help people and that’s how she spent her life.’

“And that the person who killed her didn’t want her to help people because he didn’t like certain people and that he was a very bad man.

Jo Cox in Westminster
Jo Cox in Westminster

“But that there are very few of them in the world and he’s in prison now.”

Brendan is marking the first anniversary of his wife’s death with The Great Get Together, a campaign aiming to unite communities with a series of street parties and picnics across the country.

“I would like Jo’s death to count for something and she has come to personify a set of beliefs she fought for all her life – that people have more in common than divides them,” he said.