'Jo would ask us not to fight hate with hate': Family lays murdered British MP Cox to rest

Batley: A private funeral was held Friday in northern England for Jo Cox, the MP whose murder halted Britain’s EU referendum campaign and sparked an outpouring of sympathy from around the world. Cox, 41, was shot and stabbed in the street in her Yorkshire constituency of Batley and Spen on 16 June, exactly a week before the referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, in which she campaigned for Britain to stay in the bloc. [caption id=“attachment_2839664” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Jo Cox. AFP[/caption] The campaign was suspended for three days in her honour. A local man, Thomas Mair, 52, has been charged with her murder. Hundreds of people lined the streets to pay their respects to Cox’s funeral cortege as it passed through towns in her constituency on Friday. Well-wishers applauded and many threw flowers in the path of the vehicles. The funeral was a private occasion for family and close friends. “Jo would ask us not to fight hate with hate but draw together to drain the swamp that extremism breeds in. Thinking of all victims of hatred today,” her widower Brendan Cox tweeted before the funeral. Following her murder, world leaders including US President Barack Obama paid tribute to Cox, while commemorative events were held in cities around the world, including London, Beirut, Nairobi, New York and Paris. A fund created in Cox’s memory by her friends and family has raised nearly £1.5 million ($2 million, 1.8 million euros) for charities close to her heart. Earlier this week, Cox’s family said they had been “overwhelmed and touched by the love and support” shown since her murder. “Knowing that so many people share both our grief and our determination to take forward Jo’s legacy is a source of great strength at what otherwise feels like a very bleak time,” they said in a statement. A member of the main opposition Labour Party and former aid worker, Cox was an advocate for refugee rights and immigration and was campaigning for Britain to stay in the EU. In the referendum, 55 percent in her voting district opted for leaving the bloc. Hers was the first murder of a British member of parliament since 1990.