Jo Cox

Helen Joanne Cox ( Leadbeater; 22 June 1974 – 16 June 2016) was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Batley and Spen from May 2015 until her murder in June 2016.

She was a member of the Labour Party.

Born in Batley, West Yorkshire, Cox studied Social and Political Sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Helen Joanne Leadbeater was born on 22 June 1974 in Batley, West Yorkshire, England, to Jean, a school secretary, and Gordon Leadbeater, a toothpaste and hairspray factory worker.

Raised in Heckmondwike, she was educated at Heckmondwike Grammar School, a state grammar school, where she was head girl.

During summers, she worked packing toothpaste.

The Batley and Spen seat was a Conservative marginal between 1983 and 1997 but was considered to be a safe seat for Labour, and Cox won the seat with 43.2% of the vote, increasing Labour's majority to 6,051.

Cox studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge, initially studying Archaeology and Anthropology before switching to Social and Political Science, graduating in 1995.

She later studied at the London School of Economics.

Following her graduation from Pembroke College, Cox worked as an adviser to Labour MP Joan Walley from 1995 to 1997.

She then became head of Key Campaigns at Britain in Europe (1998–99), a pro-European pressure group, before moving to Brussels to spend two years as an assistant to Glenys Kinnock, wife of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, who was then a Member of the European Parliament.

Working first as a political assistant, she joined the international humanitarian charity Oxfam in 2001, where she became head of policy and advocacy at Oxfam GB in 2005.

From 2001 to 2009, Cox worked for the aid groups Oxfam and Oxfam International, first in Brussels as the leader of the group's trade reform campaign, then as head of policy and advocacy at Oxfam GB in 2005, and head of Oxfam International's humanitarian campaigns in New York City in 2007.

While there, she helped to publish For a Safer Tomorrow, a book authored by Ed Cairns which examines the changing nature of the world's humanitarian policies.

Her work for Oxfam, in which she met disadvantaged groups in Darfur and Afghanistan, influenced her political thinking.

Cox's charity work led to a role advising Sarah Brown, wife of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was spearheading a campaign to prevent deaths in pregnancy and childbirth.

From 2009 to 2011, Cox was director of the Maternal Mortality Campaign, which was supported by Brown and her husband.

The following year, Cox worked for Save the Children (where she was a strategy consultant), the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and as director of strategy at the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood.

Cox was the national chair of the Labour Women's Network from 2010 to 2014, and a strategic adviser to the Freedom Fund, an anti-slavery charity, in 2014.

She was also on the board of Burma Campaign UK, a human rights NGO.

In 2013, she founded UK Women, a research institute aimed at meeting the needs of women in the UK, where she was also the CEO.

Between 2014 and 2015, Cox worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

She was selected to contest the Batley and Spen parliamentary seat after the incumbent, Mike Wood, decided not to stand in 2015.

She held the seat for Labour with an increased majority.

Cox became a campaigner on issues relating to the Syrian civil war, and founded and chaired the all-party parliamentary group Friends of Syria.

Cox was nominated by the Labour Party to contest the Batley and Spen seat being vacated by Mike Wood at the 2015 general election.

She was selected as its candidate from an all-women shortlist.

Cox made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 3 June 2015, using it to celebrate her constituency's ethnic diversity, while highlighting the economic challenges facing the community and urging the government to rethink its approach to economic regeneration.

She was one of 36 Labour MPs who nominated Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015, but said she had done so to get him on the list and encourage a broad debate.

In October 2015, she co-authored an article in The Observer with Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, arguing that British military forces could help achieve an ethical solution to the conflict, including the creation of civilian safe havens in Syria.

During that month, Cox launched the all-party parliamentary group Friends of Syria, becoming its chair.

In the Commons vote in December to approve UK military intervention against ISIL in Syria, Cox abstained because she believed in a more comprehensive strategy that would also include combatting President Bashar al-Assad and his "indiscriminate barrel bombs".

She wrote: "By refusing to tackle Assad's brutality, we may actively alienate more of the Sunni population, driving them towards Isis. So I have decided to abstain. Because I am not against airstrikes per se, but I cannot actively support them unless they are part of a plan. Because I believe in action to address Isis, but do not believe it will work in isolation."

Andrew Grice of The Independent felt that she "argued forcefully that the UK Government should be doing more both to help the victims and use its influence abroad to bring an end to the Syrian conflict."

On 16 June 2016, Cox died after being shot and stabbed multiple times in the street in the village of Birstall, where she had been due to hold a constituency surgery.

Thomas Mair, who held far-right views, was found guilty of her murder in November and sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order.

In July 2021, Cox's sister, Kim Leadbeater, was elected as the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, following a by-election.

In the election she voted for Liz Kendall, and announced after the local elections on 6 May 2016 that she and fellow MP Neil Coyle regretted nominating Corbyn.

Cox campaigned for a solution to the Syrian Civil War.

In February 2016, Cox wrote to the Nobel Committee praising the work of the Syrian Civil Defense, a civilian voluntary emergency rescue organisation known as the White Helmets, and nominating them for the Nobel Peace Prize, stating: "In the most dangerous place on earth these unarmed volunteers risk their lives to help anyone in need regardless of religion or politics."