Tributes to Jo Cox ahead of 10th anniversary

9 hours ago

News image — Jo Cox was killed in 2016 on her way to a constituency surgery

Jo Cox Foundation/PA Jo Cox MP, a brunette woman, smiles at the camera. She wears an orange top with a necklace. Behind her the Houses of Parliament are blurred. — Jo Cox was killed in 2016 on her way to a constituency surgery

The sister of the late Jo Cox has praised the murdered politician's "energy and enthusiasm" almost a decade on from her death.

The Labour MP was shot and stabbed by neo-Nazi Thomas Mair in her Batley and Spen constituency days before the EU referendum in June 2016.

The Great Get Together was launched in her memory and will take place again this year from 19 to 21 June.

Cox's sister, Spen Valley Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, said the annual event "has demonstrated the importance of Jo's values and shown how we can put them into practice in our daily lives".

She said: "I find it incredibly hard to believe that it has been 10 years since my sister was murdered.

"We, as a family, miss Jo's energy and enthusiasm - and always will - and as a country her compassion and strength of her conviction that we are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us, are needed more than ever in today's world."

Organisers described the Great Get Together as a "national tradition", made up of street parties, community picnics, runs, coffee mornings and "simple acts of togetherness".

BBC/Elizabeth Baines Kim Leadbeater MP, a blonde woman, smiles at the camera. She wears a white top with "The Jo Cox Way" on the front. She wears a silver chain with sunglasses on the top of her head. Behind her a race track is blurred. — Kim Leadbeater said the family would "always miss Jo's energy and enthusiasm"

They estimated that more than 17m people across the UK had taken part in associated events over the past 10 years.

This year's anniversary was described as a "moment of remembrance, but also one of incredible possibility", by Olivia Field, chief executive at the Jo Cox Foundation.

She said: "Over the last decade, we have seen that connection is a choice - and it's a choice that people across the UK are making every single day.

"By acting on Jo's belief that we have more in common than that which divides us, we can shape a more hopeful, connected future together.

"This year's Great Get Together is one way to demonstrate that."

The foundation has released a free 10th anniversary toolkit to help those organising events and said it would also distribute £5,000 of micro-grants to community organisers across the UK.

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