Legacy of Jo Cox

Debate between Alison McGovern and Wendy Chamberlain

Thursday 11th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the legacy of Jo Cox.

It is an honour to move this debate on behalf of the Government. I thank Jo’s family for being with us yesterday in Downing Street, and for their incredible leadership and friendship. Throughout the past decade they have all been an inspiration. Their tenacity and guts have given us all strength, and Jo’s children are more than a credit to her.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater)—she is my friend—for everything. I thank her for her sheer unrelenting energy. I thank her for deciding to come here, stepping into public life in circumstances that most of us cannot comprehend. I thank her for her dogged persistence on everything from the importance of physical activity for all and of addressing loneliness and community, to access to green spaces. I thank her for building Jo’s legacy and for securing this debate today.

I am conscious that we meet today with events in Belfast causing fear and distress for affected children and their families. Hateful rhetoric is never just words; it has consequences. I think of all those who are dealing with the consequences: those who are hurt and those who are helping to care for people who need it.

[Wendy Chamberlain (North East Fife) (LD)]

I did not serve in this Parliament at the same time as Jo Cox, but I have served here at the same time as my friend, the hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater). I recognise on my behalf, and that of a number of MPs who she and I engage with cross-party, that she really embodies the legacy of her sister—that, cross-party, there is more that unites than divides us—and it is an honour to be here today.

[Alison McGovern]

I thank the hon. Lady for her words, which are spot on.

Ten years ago next week, I was in Portcullis House next door when I received a message from the now Chancellor of the Exchequer telling me that our friend Jo Cox, the then Member for Batley and Spen, had been murdered in her constituency. It remains the worst moment of my life in politics. That someone so courageous and strong, someone small in stature but enormous in spirit, should be killed like that is as horrific today as it was in that moment. At the time of her killing, her loved ones and friends decided that it was she who should be talked about, not the person who killed her. Her life, her work, her beliefs are important; helping her murderer achieve any notoriety is not. Today, we meet to put her legacy on the record again.

Jo was a parliamentarian for just a year, yet her life before becoming an MP had been so adventurous and full, and she had already seriously influenced politics. There is therefore much about her whole life to talk about.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alison McGovern and Wendy Chamberlain

Monday 12th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alison McGovern]

As I just mentioned, our new jobcentres will create a universal service across Great Britain. We must make those changes to serve young people. My hon. Friend makes an excellent point about the pandemic generation, who deserve much better from us all. I know that his city of Edinburgh is full of chances and opportunities that we cannot let go to waste. Given the role of Edinburgh and Glasgow in our visitor economy, I am sure that he will be interested in the work we are doing with UKHospitality to help more young people to have an opportunity in that great sector.

[Wendy Chamberlain (North East Fife) (LD)]

Struggling to make ends meet, paying bills, buying work appropriate clothing and paying for public transport all affect someone’s ability to get and keep a job. That is just as true for under-25s as it is for anybody else, but the Government continue to maintain a lower rate of universal credit for young people when there is no guarantee that they have financial support from their families. In looking at universal credit, will the Government consider that?

[Alison McGovern]

As the hon. Member will know, we are reviewing universal credit. I am particularly focused on ensuring that young people have a chance before they reach the age of 25. If they are out of work in those first years after leaving school or college, it is absolutely devastating for the rest of their careers. That is why we are making these changes.