Police yesterday said they have charged a 52-year-old man with the murder of British lawmaker Jo Cox following an attack that has brought campaigning for the referendum on EU membership to a standstill.
Thomas Mair was charged with killing Cox, 41, a member of the leftist opposition Labour Party and supporter of Britain staying in the EU, who was shot and stabbed to death in the street in her own electoral district in northern England on Thursday.
Cox was targeted in the attack as she prepared to hold a regular session to give advice to constituents.
Photo: AP
A 77-year-old man who intervened to try to protect Cox remains hospitalized in a stable condition after suffering a serious injury to his abdomen.
Mair, who lives in the town of Birstall, in Yorkshire, where Cox was slain, was yesterday to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates charged with murder, causing grievous bodily harm and offenses related to possession of a firearm.
Cox’s killing has shocked the nation, uniting politicians in horror and leading to the suspension of hostilities in what had become increasingly bitter and ugly campaigning ahead of the referendum on the EU on Thursday next week.
On Friday, British Prime Minister David Cameron joined Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in laying flowers in Birstall.
“It is a vile act that has killed her,” Corbyn said.
Cameron has agreed to recall parliament tomorrow to allow lawmakers to pay tributes to the popular lawmaker, who had only been elected to parliament last year.
The murder has sparked debate in Britain, which has strict gun controls, about the safety of lawmakers, the heightened tempo of political confrontation and whether the slaying would affect the outcome of the EU referendum.
Both sides in the referendum contest have put on hold their national campaigns until at least today.
Polls have suggested the vote is on a knife edge, but in the past week had indicated that the campaign to leave the EU had been taking the lead.
A telephone survey by BMG for Scotland’s the Herald newspaper yesterday showed the “Remain” camp with 53 percent support and “Leave” on 47 percent, although a separate online poll by BMG showed Leave leading by 10 points, with 55 percent support compared to Remain’s 45 percent.
Cox had arrived in Birstall for a “surgery” in a library with members of the public, a one-to-one meeting much like when a patient consults a doctor.
In Westminster, where lawmakers do much of their work in parliament, armed police patrol the entrances, corridors and halls, but there is often no security in their home electoral districts, or constituencies.
Leaders across Europe and the world have expressed shock at the killing of Cox, a Cambridge University graduate and former charity worker whose job took her to countries such as Afghanistan and Darfur.
A fund set up in her honor had raised more than £140,000 (US$201,026) for charities she supported in six hours.
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