Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of People Before Profit and the Anti-Austerity Alliance, I extend our heartfelt condolences and sympathies to Jo Cox’s husband, Brendan, her two children and all her family and friends.

Jo's murder was an utterly vile and obnoxious act which must be condemned outright. British politics and the Labour Party in Britain have suffered the loss of a champion of progressive causes.

At the time of her death, Jo was preparing a report for the British Parliament on the rise of Islamophobia and aggressive nationalist politics, and the need to challenge them. She had also produced a report on the plight of Palestinian people in Gaza and the need to lift the blockade of Gaza. From the very first day she entered the British Parliament, she spoke out about the need to oppose racism and welcome and acknowledge the contribution of refugees and immigrants in Britain, whether Irish Catholics, Muslims or any other nationality. She was clearly a subscriber to the view that I and, I hope, everybody holds, namely, that there is only one race in the world, the human race. Jo Cox clearly subscribed to that view. It is a shocking wake-up call for us about the dangers of the growth of far-right, racist and anti-immigrant sentiment right across Europe.

We do not know the exact circumstances or reasons for her killing, but evidence is mounting that the person who was apprehended was associated with some of the fascist far-right in Europe. Whatever our differences on questions of the European Union or policy, in the aftermath of Jo's death we all have to show the strongest united front against racism, intolerance and prejudice in the way that Jo Cox did throughout her life. Her husband Brendan committed in the aftermath of the shooting to fighting the hatred that killed Jo, and we should all commit to that battle in the aftermath of her tragic murder.

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