All you need to know about Thomas Mair, alleged killer of British MP Jo Cox

The alleged killer of British lawmaker Jo Cox was a “dedicated supporter” of a neo-Nazi group based in the United States, a civil rights group reported Thursday. The Southern Poverty Law Centre said that the man named by British media as the attacker, Thomas Mair, had a “long history with white nationalism”. “According to records obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, Mair was a dedicated supporter of the National Alliance (NA), the once premier neo-Nazi organisation in the United States, for decades,” the legal advocacy group said on its website. [caption id=“attachment_2839930” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Thomas Mair. Twitter @tayoaro[/caption] British media also reported one neighbour describing Mair as a “loner”. Neighbors also said Mair was a quiet man who did gardening jobs for local people. Cox, a 41-year-old lawmaker with the opposition Labour Party who was known for campaigning for refugee rights, was killed in a daylight attack Thursday in her home constituency in Yorkshire in northern England. Police said an investigation was underway to establish the motive for the murder, which halted campaigning a week before Britain’s referendum on whether to leave the European Union, a debate marked by divisions over immigration. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that Mair had spent more than $620 on reading material from the National Alliance, a group which called for the creation of an all-white homeland and eradication of Jewish people. Images of two invoices published on the advocacy group’s website appeared to show orders for magazines from Thomas Mair, with an address in West Yorkshire. One handbook Mair purchased included instructions on building a gun from everyday materials, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. British media reported witnesses of the attack as saying that the assailant had used a gun of “old-fashioned” or “homemade” appearance. One witness, cafe-owner Clarke Rothwell, told the Press Association that the gunman had shouted “put Britain first” repeatedly during the attack. “Britain First” is the name of a far-right anti-immigration group, which released a statement saying it was “obviously not involved” and “would never encourage behaviour of this sort”. Mair’s brother, Scott Mair, told the Daily Telegraph that Thomas “is not violent and is not all that political”. “He has a history of mental illness, but he has had help,” Scott Mair said. Separately, the newspaper reported that Mair was a subscriber to SA Patriot, a South African magazine published by a pro-apartheid group with an editorial stance against multiculturalism. Police said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the attack, which was described as “a localised incident”. They said a full investigation would try to establish a motive and that they were speaking to a large number of witnesses. With inputs from agencies