100,000 events to celebrate life of murdered Jo Cox

MORE than 100,000 communities will hold events to mark the first anniversary of the murder of Jo Cox, the MP killed in her constituency.

A weekend of events is planned between June 16 and 18 to celebrate the life of Mrs Cox, including an event with 10,000 people at the Olympic Park in East London. The organisers of the commemoration believe that the event will be the biggest of its kind since the Diamond Jubilee.

Brendan Cox, the MP’S widower, said: “I’m both amazed and humbled that so many people have said they want to take part in The Great Get Together. I think the huge response is because we’re tapping into the national mood – a desire for unity and togetherness rather than the divisiveness of politics and the public debate in recent years.

“We are hearing about new events all the time and there will no doubt be many more that just happen spontaneously. The important thing is that it will be a lot of fun and will hopefully play its part in reminding us all of the values that make this country such place to live.”

The weekend of celebrations is inspired by Mrs Cox’s maiden parliamentary speech where she said “we have far more in common than that which divides us”.

Since the beginning of the year the Jo Cox Foundation has been working on “The Great Get Together” with The a great Big Lunch, which has organised annual neighbourhood celebrations since 2009. It moved its annual event to coincide with the anniversary.

With a month to go the number of events – based on online registrations and requests for planning packs – is expected to be over 100,000. Some will be huge, but others will be just a few people getting together for a picnic.