Slain UK politician died because of political views - husband

  • 22/06/2016
Tributes for Labour Party MP Jo Cox, who was shot dead in the street in northern England (Reuters)
Tributes for Labour Party MP Jo Cox, who was shot dead in the street in northern England (Reuters)

British lawmaker Jo Cox, who was shot and stabbed in the street last week, died because of her strong political views, her husband says.

Ms Cox, a supporter of Britain's European Union membership who had also campaigned for Britain to do more to help refugees, was killed in her northern English electoral district by a man heard shouting "Britain first".

"She had very strong political views and I believe she was killed because of those views," her husband Brendan Cox told broadcasters on Tuesday.

Parliament was recalled on Monday from campaigning for this week's referendum on EU membership to pay tribute to opposition Labour lawmaker Ms Cox, who worked for aid agency Oxfam before entering parliament last year.

Many MPs praised Cox, a 41-year-old mother of two young children, for her ability to work across political party lines to further the causes she believed in.

Her husband said Ms Cox had been worried that politics was becoming too tribal, that people didn't work together as individuals on issues anymore and were being driven to more extreme positions.

"She was particularly worried about the direction of politics at the moment, particularly around creating division and playing on people's worst fears rather than their best instincts," he said.

During Monday's tributes, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Ms Cox's death "appeared increasingly likely to have been a politically motivated attack".

A 52-year-old man has been arrested and charged with Ms Cox's murder.

Reuters