ELECTION ‘ ON HOLD’ FOR TRIBUTE TO JO
POLITICIANS will halt their election campaigning today in a unique tribute to murdered Labour MP Jo Cox.
Each party leader will spend an hour visiting projects working to unite communities.
The visits are intended to show support for tragic Jo’s belief that we all have “more in common than what divides us”.
They are also aimed at promoting The Great Get Together, a nationwide celebration of community spirit to mark the first anniversary of the 41-year-old mum-of-two’s murder next month. Jo’s husband Brendan Cox said he hoped the break in electioneering would send a positive signal.
He said: “Doing so in a co-ordinated way will, we hope, send a powerful message that whatever our political disagreements, we really do hold more in common and show a united front against hatred and extremism.
“We spend way too much time fixated on the areas we disagree with each other.”
PM Theresa May has pledged her personal support for the initiative while Jeremy Corbyn is set to visit a community project in Liverpool. Lib Dem leader Tim Farron will attend a community picnic in Kendal, Cumbria, and the Greens’ Caroline Lucas will be at a church project in Brighton.
Each has asked all their candidates to do the same. In Jo’s constituency of Batley and Spen, West Yorks, rival candidates will converge at a farmers’ fund-raising event.
Jo was shot and stabbed to death outside a library in the area on June 16 last year. Thomas Mair, 53, was given life for killing her and knifing a man of 77 who tried to intervene.