Outrage as EU chief blames the Brexit campaign for Jo Cox murder
THE head of the European Parliament sparked outrage yesterday by blaming the murder of Jo Cox on Brexit supporters.
Martin Schulz claimed the Labour MP was killed for her political convictions during a ‘nasty’ referendum campaign.
He was immediately accused of insulting Leave voters and of being ‘just wrong’.
The German socialist MEP criticised the tone of the referendum campaigning during a visit to London.
‘Who would have anticipated precisely what came next?’ he said. ‘That the campaign would get so nasty that a member of the UK Parliament, Jo Cox, would be brutally murdered, in broad daylight, for her political convictions?’
He said the referendum had divided British society and accused Leave campaigners of fueling ‘hate crime’ and attacks on foreigners. ‘Many people are looking on with concern at the rise in xenophobic violence
‘Slur on decent and hard-working people’
and hate crime over here – somehow legitimised in the minds of the aggressors by the popular vote,’ he added.
Kate Hoey, a Labour MP who campaigned for Brexit, said Mr Schulz’s remarks were ‘a slur on all the decent, hard-working people who voted to leave the European Union’. She added: ‘It is quite shocking that someone in such a responsible position can make a remark that is not just untrue but also inflammatory.’
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Conservative MP, said: ‘It’s just nasty to say things like that and to think his self-righteous view of the world means that dreadful murders wouldn’t happen – he’s just wrong.
‘It’s nothing to do with people’s politics, it’s much more complex than that and it’s a trivialising and nasty thing to say.’
Peter Bone, a fellow Tory MP, said Mr Schulz’s remarks were regrettable and wrong.
A former bookseller who was elected to the European Parlia- ment in 1994, Mr Schulz made his remarks in the opening paragraphs of a speech on Brexit at the London School of Economics.
During a question and answer session, he flatly refused to accept any responsibility for voters’ growing disillusionment with the EU.
He said he would not take any personal responsibility for a country that had ‘wavered’ on EU membership for 45 years.
Mr Schulz, who is on a basic salary of £227,000 a year, also revealed his strong support for the EU because of his German heritage. His father fought in the Second World War and was a prisoner of war in the UK. He said his only regret was not coming to Britain to fight for the Remain side during the referendum campaign.
Mr Schulz conceded that many people voted for Brexit to stem immigration, but said it was wrong to ‘sacrifice single market access to the altar of migration’.
The European Parliament president made clear that he expects Theresa May to trigger Article 50 quickly, saying it would be farcical if UK MEPs were to be re-elected in 2019 only to be forced to leave after Brexit was enacted.
Mr Schulz also said he believed the UK government was ‘in no way prepared’ for Brexit and suggested Mrs May was unclear about what she wants from it.
But he conceded Britain leaving the EU was a ‘failure’ and that the European Parliament would suffer by losing a member of the G7 and the UN Security Council.
Mrs Cox, 41, the MP for Batley and Spen, was shot and stabbed as she walked to a constituency surgery at a library in Birstall, West Yorkshire, a week before the referendum. Campaigning by both sides was suspended for two days after her death.
MPs from across the Brexit and political divide paid tribute to the Labour MP in the Commons, making a point to separate the circumstances behind her death from the EU referendum campaign.
Thomas Mair, 52, has been charged with Mrs Cox’s murder and is due at the Old Bailey next month. Her husband, Brendan, has travelled to the US with the couple’s two young children Lejla and Cuillin to meet Barack Obama.
In a piece for the New York Times, Mr Cox wrote how he and his late wife had been worried about populists and extremists exploiting the referendum.
Comment – Page 16 The hate crime myth – Pages 28&29