‘Press hatred does not help’
As tributes continue to pour in after the death of British Labour politician Jo Cox a UK MP told The Connexion that elements of the UK press “whipping people up to be xenophobic” is not helping.
Sir Roger Gale, the MP for North Thanet in Kent and a keen supporter of expat rights, said: “This is a tragedy. The House of Commons is like a family.
“We have differences politically but we like each other as a breed and get along and we all feel for each other and when something like this happens, to someone who was very nice and very committed, it’s terrible.
He added while he would not want to lay the blame on them for the act of what appears to have been a lone man who suffers from mental health problems, “I don’t think the British press helps at all. The press fomenting extremism and hatred as some papers do doesn’t help”.
As calls were put out by Downing Street this morning for MPs to take extra care with security, Sir Roger added: “It’s an occupational hazard and we are at risk, but we know that and so are journalists, so are all sorts of people. We can’t wrap ourselves in cotton wool.
“They’re saying ‘we should tighten security’ – but how? What can you do, unless you’re going to lock yourself away.
“You’ve got to meet constituents. I’ve had people in my office who were quite dangerous from time to time. Mostly what we suffer is verbal abuse. I had someone ranting and raving on the phone yesterday, but that comes with the territory.
“But on a purely personal level we are desperately sorry for her husband and their kids.”
Mrs Cox, 41, died after being airlifted to hospital yesterday, after she was shot and stabbed in the street in West Yorkshire by a man who witnesses reportedly said was shouting ‘Britain first’. She was attacked when she left a constituency surgery session in a local library.
Tributes have come in from people around the world, including US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who said called the attack “a violent act of political intolerance”.
Mrs Cox, who worked in charity before becoming an MP in her native Yorkshire, backed the Remain campaign and was known as a campaigner for Syrian refugees. She had two children aged three and five.
Her husband Brendan said in a statement: “Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy, and a zest for life that would exhaust most people.
“She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now, one that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her.”
