Tommy Mair: Loner accused in killing of British lawmaker Jo Cox

Prime Minister David Cameron, a Conservative, joined Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn Friday to lay flowers in Cox’s home district in Yorkshire.

Some mourners said they had never heard of Cox, an up-and-coming Labour politician, before she was shot and stabbed to death and were drawn by tributes that described her as a compassionate, well-meaning, and caring individual.

British police have not named Mair as the man who eyewitnesses said shouted “Britain first” before stabbing and shooting Cox in a village in northern England where she was meeting with constituents on Thursday, but British media have identified him as the suspect.

“The most profound thing that has happened is that two children have lost their mother, a husband has lost a loving wife, and, of course, parliament has lost a passionate and brilliant campaigner, someone who epitomized the fact that politics is about serving others”, Cameron said 24 hours after Cox’s murder.

Mrs Cox supported the Remain side, which, like the rival Leave camp, suspended its campaigning following her murder.

The brother of the suspect held over the deadly attack on Labour MP Jo Cox has said Tommy Mair is “not a violent man”.

Following her killing, politicians have been advised to review their security.

Cox’s killing – in daylight on a street just as she arrived at a local library where she was due to hold a surgery – has sent shockwaves through Britain which has seen a sometimes acrimonious campaign ahead of a vote on whether to stay in the European Union next week.

Across the market square from where they stood, police tape still cordoned off the spot where the 41-year-old former aid worker was killed in what Mr Corbyn described as “an attack on democracy”.

“I did not know Jo well, but I did observe her in the House of Commons over the past year and she was a hard-working, intelligent MP who fought hard on behalf of her constituents, it is a real sad loss”.

Rob Webster, chief executive at SWYP NHS Trust, said: “Our thoughts are with Jo’s family, friends and colleagues during this tragic time”.

Heidi C. Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center said Mair had been a supporter of the National Alliance, “the most risky and violent neo-Nazi group in the United States for decades”.

But police have confirmed it was not the same man who was arrested on Thursday following the attack. The “Leave the EU” campaign said a planned rally on Sunday will still take place.

“I know MPs [members of Parliament] are scared. I very rarely agree with the prime minister but on this he’s right: we are stronger, safer and better off in”, she wrote in The Yorkshire Post on 10 June.