UK leaders unite in tribute to murdered MP

Campaigning in Britain’s European Union membership referendum remained suspended on Friday as the country paused in shock at the daylight murder of MP Jo Cox.

Members of the public look at floral tributes left in memory of British MP Jo Cox in Parliament Square, London. The Labour MP was murdered in Birstall, West Yorkshire, while meeting members of the public in her constituency. Will Oliver / EPAShow less

London // The U.K. recalled Parliament on Monday to pay tribute to murdered Labour Party politician, as political leaders urged unity after weeks of acrimonious campaigning over membership of the European Union.

prime minister David Cameron and opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn made a rare joint appearance Friday at the site of the attack to praise Cox and call for restraint in the referendum debate. Campaigning for the June 23 vote has been suspended since her death was announced.

“We should value and see as precious the democracy we have on these islands where 65 million of us live together, work together and get on together,” Cameron said after laying flowers with Corbyn at the spot where Cox was shot. “It is all underpinned by tolerance, so where we see hatred, where we find division, where we see intolerance, we must drive it out of public life, out of our communities.”

Cox, 41, and mother of two small children, was killed in the town of Birstall, northern England, in the early afternoon on Thursday. She was a fervent supporter of Britain remaining in the EU, as well as a champion of the poor and of Syrian refugees. Her murder followed an increasingly rancorous debate over the referendum, with opinion polls putting the “Leave” campaign ahead by several percentage points.

Police arrested a 52-year-old man after the attack. There are allegations linking him with anti-immigration organisations and white supremacist groups in the US and South Africa. There were also reports that he had shouted “Britain first” as Cox was shot and stabbed.

“Jo was an exceptional, wonderful, very talented woman, taken from us in her early 40s when she had so much to give and so much of her life ahead of her,” said Mr Corbyn said. “In her memory, we will not allow those people that spread hatred and poison to divide our society, we will strengthen our democracy, strengthen our free speech.”

The Labour leader Corbyn said House of Commons Speaker John Bercow had agreed to his request for a recall “so that we can pay due tribute to her on behalf of everyone in this country who values democracy, values the right of free speech and values the right of political expression.” Parliament has been in pre-referendum recess since Wednesday. “It’s an attack on democracy what happened yesterday,” said Mr Corbyn. “It’s the well of hatred that killed her.”

The appearance of Mr Corbyn alongside his political opponent, prime minister David Cameron was a show of unity by two men who have yet to campaign together despite both supporting a “Remain” vote. Mr Cameron’s Conservatives also said they won’t contest Cox’s seat in the by-election that will have to take place to elect her replacement.

Events planned by the two main campaign groups have been cancelled, while publication of opinion polls and an International Monetary Fund report were delayed until the weekend. Cameron, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney all cancelled or shortened public appearances on Thursday.

The repercussions of Cox’s death spread beyond U.K. borders, with Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi and US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton among those commenting. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the killing underlined the need to engage with others of differing political views with respect, urging an end to the “total exaggeration and radicalisation” of political debate.

“We know how important it is to establish boundaries in one’s choice of language and argument ... and to engage with respect those who think and believe and love differently,” Merkel said in Berlin. “Politics can’t solve everything, but it can contribute to ensuring in what manner we engage in disagreement — and this terrible murder reminds us all always to take this to heart.”

Cameron is due to appear on Sunday evening on a special referendum edition of BBC Television’s “Question Time” show, following a morning appearance by his pro-Brexit justice secretary, Michael Gove, and by Mr Corbyn on the BBC’s “Andrew Marr” politics show.

On Saturday, the IMF plans to release a report on the implications of a British exit from the EU, while polling company BMG will publish a referendum poll, both after being delayed by a day. The suspension of campaigning lifted the pound, which has fallen in recent weeks as polls tightened.

“Membership in the EU has made the U.K. a richer economy, but it has also made it a more diverse, more exciting, and more creative country,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Friday in a speech in Vienna. “I have always admired the United Kingdom for its openness to other nationalities and foreign cultures, and I find it hard to believe that attitudes have changed in such a short time.”

Cox, who worked for charities including Oxfam and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation before standing for parliament celebrated Britain’s diversity in her first speech to Parliament after being elected in May last year and repeatedly raised the plight of refugees from the war in Syria.

“Parliament has lost one of its most passionate and brilliant campaigners,” Cameron said. “If we truly want to honour Jo, then what we should do is to recognise that her values — service, community, tolerance — the values she lived by and worked by, those are the values that we need to redouble in our national life in the months and years to come.”

--With assistance from Robert Hutton To contact the reporters on this story: Thomas Penny in London at [e-mail], Alex Morales in London at [e-mail]. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at [e-mail], Andrew Atkinson, Eddie Buckle

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