Ten years on from the murder of her sister Jo Cox, an ardently pro-Remain MP shot dead just days before the Brexit vote, Kim Leadbeater has said social media-driven political hate in Britain has put society in a “worse position than we were in then”.
In an interview with The National, the former personal trainer, who now represents her older sister’s constituency in parliament, disclosed that her family have chosen to “channel that anger and devastation” from Jo’s murder by a far-right Brexit fanatic “into doing something positive and trying to make a difference”.
Her fears have been echoed across the political spectrum, with Labour councillors from northern England telling The National about rising abuse and threats made against them around last month’s local elections.
They believe the problem is going to get worse, with unchecked social media vitriol driving the hate against politicians. It has also raised deep concerns that the threats against Britain’s politicians will undermine its democracy, with far fewer people willing to accept the risks now inherent in working in politics.
Toxic Brexit
Jo Cox, who was also a campaigner against civilian abuses in the Syrian civil war, was on her way to a constituency surgery in Birstall, Yorkshire, on June 16, 2016, when she was shot and stabbed multiple times by Thomas Mair, who was imprisoned for life for her murder.
She had been a vehement supporter of the UK remaining in the EU at a time when the incendiary language around Brexit stoked a deadly atmosphere.
“Jo's murder was sadly right in the centre of that, where we did see such division and such dangerous rhetoric,” said Ms Leadbeater. “And that I think is sadly where we are now.”
The shock of the attack temporarily lowered the “febrile and toxic” atmosphere, and “there was a small period of time where people said we have to do things differently”.
However, that did not last for long. “Sadly we've seen more and more division, anger, frustration and polarisation 10 years down the line, and I think it's fair to say we're probably in a worse position than we were then,” Ms Leadbeater said.
More in common
Prime Minister Keir Starmer recalled how Ms Cox campaigned on the basis that “we have far more in common than that which divides us” and said her conviction politics remained a living call to action for all in Britain.
“At a time when those values are being tested, her legacy feels as vital and urgent as ever,” he said in tribute on the 10th anniversary of her death. “The best way to honour her memory is to stand firmly against hatred and division, to bring communities together, and to show, through both big acts and small, the compassion, decency and solidarity that define our nation at its best.
“Jo’s legacy endures in the communities she inspired, the people she brought into public life, and the countless acts of kindness carried out in her name.”
Hatred in Halifax
The decline in the political atmosphere was reflected in May's local elections. The National spoke to Danielle Durrans and Kelly Thornham, two former Labour councillors who said they had encountered abuse around the elections.
“Jo Cox was local to us, and it all feels quite close because I've never felt that kind of fear before on the doorstep, where personal blame is placed on us local politicians,” said Kelly Thornham, who lost her council seat in Halifax.
That seat was taken by Nigel Farage’s populist hard-right Reform party, in part of a tidal wave of wins that swept Britain, putting it on course for major gains in the next general election.
That is a worry, says Ms Thornham. “Reform are very good at pushing that emotive message to whip up fear, and we all know they play on people's fears.”
There was also a well-organised Facebook operation in which stinging attacks were posted, some of them very personal and threatening. “We had to report quite a lot to the police.”
Her colleague Danielle Durrans, who also lost her seat, said she had not felt vulnerable while knocking on doors before the most recent campaign, but that she now did not dare wear a Labour rosette or other insignia.
“Previously, if you knocked on a door, you might have had a conversation that might have been emotive, but it didn't feel as hostile as it has this time,” she said. “You just don’t know what's on the other side of the door. I don't remember feeling like that until this election, that fear.”
Can democracy survive?
One of Labour’s major strategic thinkers, Jon Cruddas, who left parliament at the last election, noted that the “terms of the debate have been dramatically transformed” in the last decade, and that the discourse was now “much more divisive, angry, resentful, dangerous and violent”.
“You can use Jo Cox’s murder as a key benchmark in that, just as you can Brexit,” he added. “The question is, given the potency of social media, the way it's been utilised to polarise and divide the whole country … given the escalating powers of these new technologies, where are we going to be in five years in terms of undermining democracy?”
He left parliament in part due to the rising threats against MPs, the murder of David Amess in 2021, and a number of other attacks on colleagues.
While representing Dagenham, in Essex, he had to deal with the neo-Nazis of the British National Party, but that was “nothing compared to what people have to deal with now”. That particularly applies to the “online world and especially to women MPs”.
“Anyone who puts their head above the parapet now is seen as fair game in terms of destroying their personalities, their character and physical threats that come along with it.” The worry now is that this is turning people off from entering public life. “Where is that taking our democracy? Can it survive this sort of stuff?”
That growing toxicity is reflected in the rise of Islamophobia, with more than half of Muslims (56 per cent) experiencing prejudice based on their religion, according to a British Muslim Trust survey. But it also found that almost three-quarters still believe that Britain is a good place to be a Muslim.
Best and brightest
Better political leadership is needed, he said – an argument Ms Leadbeater has been making for a decade.
“I've given the same interview for 10 years about how it needs good political leadership,” she said. “We need to treat each other with respect and civility, even when we profoundly disagree. And we’ve got to find common ground.”
That is also a worry shared by former Tory foreign minister Tobias Ellwood, who worked with Ms Cox on Syria and described her as “one of those rare MPs who didn't feel the need to try and crush the other person just because they were not in the same party”.
The former MP, who also suffered attacks on his home in 2022, said politicians were attacked “more randomly than before”. He said that that is a “major fault line”. He said that “we don't make enough effort to attract the brightest and the best into politics … possibly because of what happened to Jo Cox”.
The intrusion into the private life and constant berating, he said, was making potential politicians believe “it's absolutely not worth stepping forward – and that diminishes Britain's ability to politically lead”.
With recent riots in Belfast over a Sudanese immigrant stabbing a local man, along with unrest in Southampton over the murder of Henry Nowak by a Sikh, Britain is on edge again. Some argue that those on the right are stoking people’s fervour, and point to Mr Farage urging “pure, cold rage” after the conviction of Henry Nowak's murderer.
“Anybody who holds public office has a duty to behave responsibly, whatever our strongly held views may be,” said Ms Leadbeater. “Our role is to try and unite people. From wherever you are on the political spectrum, you have to be responsible in the words that you use.”
