A Tory hopeful in murdered MP Jo Cox’s former constituency has sparked outrage after making an insensitive joke about shooting people.

Dr Ann Myatt’s remark was met with jeers and gasps from the audience during hustings.

The Conservative candidate was answering a question about tackling Islamophobia when she said: “This sort of evening is absolutely first rate because we have here people of all faiths, we have here people from different parts of the community and we have not yet shot anybody so that’s wonderful.”

A friend of the murdered MP who was with her the night before her death said he felt “utter abhorrence” after the Tory’s crass comment, reports the Mirror.

Batley and Spen Conservative candidate Dr Ann Myatt at the hustings with Labour candidate Tracy Brabin (right).
Batley and Spen Conservative candidate Dr Ann Myatt at the hustings with Labour candidate Tracy Brabin (right).

Mum-of-two Ms Cox was gunned down last year on her way to a local library and right-wing extremist Thomas Mair was jailed for life for murder.

Dr Myatt later apologised “unreservedly” for her “stupid comment”, but not before going on a ramble about cricket and the Great British Bake Off.

Labour member David Keeton, who also sits on the More In Common committee that fights racial division, said: “My initial reaction at what she said was shock, then utter abhorrence that someone could say such a thing under any circumstances, let alone here less than a year after our wonderful MP Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right terrorist.

“This happens to be about politics but if you could have things, as you said, about cricket and about maybe cooking – you know, that wonderful lady who won the Bake Off. All sorts of things.

Jo Cox

“Maybe some of it would be about things rather than difference – things that we share, things that we have.”

Dr Myatt was later challenged to say sorry by an audience member at the debate, which took place in a community centre just two miles from where Ms Cox was murdered.

She said: “I apologise unreservedly for a stupid comment. I was apologising before I passed on the microphone. I’m really sorry.”

Dr Myatt, an NHS consultant dermatologist, stood against Lib Dem leader Tim Farron in his Cumbria constituency in 2015, losing by 8,949 votes.

The Examiner contacted the Conservative party press office on May 24 but it has not responded.