The widower of MP Jo Cox who was tragically killed last Thursday has claimed she died because of her “very strong” views - and was worried about the direction of British politics.
Brendan Cox said the public reaction to her death had been “off the scale” and had made a “really important contribution” to the healing process for the couple’s two children.
He indicated that he would like to see a female MP take Mrs Cox’s former Batley and Spen seat, suggesting that would be “lovely symbolism”.
Mr Cox said his wife had concerns about the culture of politics around the world: “I think she was very worried that the language was coarsening, that people were being driven to take more extreme positions, that people didn’t work with each other as individuals and on issues, it was all much too tribal and unthinking.”
Tributes are paid to Jo Cox MP
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Expressing his thanks for the “incredible” public support following her death, he said: “The two things that I’ve been very focused on is how do we support and protect the children, and how do we make sure that something good comes out of this.
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“And what the public support and outpouring of love around this does, is it also helps the children see that what they’re feeling and other people are feeling, that the grief that they feel, isn’t abnormal, that they feel it more acutely and more painfully and more personally, but that actually their mother was someone who was loved by lots of people and that therefore, it’s OK to be upset and it’s OK for them to cry and to be sad about it.”
