Legacy of Jo Cox

Sarah Smith Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Stepney) (Lab)]

I begin by paying tribute to my wonderful friend the hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) for her courage and determination and for constantly inspiring all of us in the work that she does in her own right and to celebrate the life and legacy of our friend and colleague, the wonderful Jo Cox.

The House has heard so much about our friend Jo as a politician, feminist, socialist, internationalist, mother, wife, sister, friend and Member of Parliament. In London, Jo lived with her wonderful family in a houseboat on the Thames, moored at Hermitage moorings in Wapping, not far from where I grew up and in the borough that is home to my constituency.

[Sarah Smith (Hyndburn) (Lab)]

I have similar fond memories, as I was also a member of the Tower Hamlets constituency Labour party for many years. I am sure that my hon. Friend remembers the important role Jo played there, not least because it has frankly been a difficult place to do politics for many years. Having the light of someone like Jo was so transformational for those of us who were really involved in the area all those years ago.

[Rushanara Ali]

My hon. Friend highlights just how much Jo meant to the people of Tower Hamlets and to our local party, along with her husband and her family. Jo and her family, as she points out, have a special place in our hearts and our diverse east end community.

I first met Jo in October 2011 when I was a newly elected Member of Parliament serving as shadow International Development Minister. Jo, Brendan and I were at a reception celebrating the work of international development leaders. Jo and her husband were among the “40 Under 40” individuals listed among a new generation of global leaders by Devex. She was standing there across the room holding her baby son in her arms while meeting and greeting those of us around her. There was an instant warmth, that big smile, and a connection that left me feeling like we were long-lost friends, when we had only just met. That was her gift.

Following Jo’s election in 2015, we would meet and talk about the conflict that was raging in Syria. I had visited Lebanon a couple of years earlier and met Syrian refugees—there was a million of them by then—who had escaped the war. By 2015, that war had raged on for a number of years. Jo was a passionate advocate for Syrian refugees, working hard to highlight the plight of all those who were suffering. Her internationalism brought together many of us who care deeply about global conflict, poverty and global emergencies. For years she worked as a board member of the Burma Campaign UK, working to support the struggle for human rights and democracy in that country.

When speaking in favour of Lord Dubs’ amendment on refugee children, Jo said,

“Syrian families are being forced to make an impossible decision: stay and face starvation, rape, persecution and death, or make a perilous journey to find sanctuary elsewhere. Who can blame desperate parents for wanting to escape the horror…? Children are being killed on their way to school…I know I would risk life and limb to get my two precious babies out of that hellhole.”—[Official Report, 25 April 2016; Vol. 608, c. 1234.]

Jo cared deeply about children around the world, as much as she loved her precious babies, as she said.

Jo also cared deeply about her constituents and her constituency. While speaking in this House and working tirelessly for her constituents, she always saw the bigger picture—the global picture. As a Member of Parliament, a humanitarian and a former aid worker, she continued to use her agency in this place to speak up for those suffering here at home and globally. Her work with Oxfam, the Gates Foundation and Save the Children shaped her politics and informed her work in this House.

Jo was an internationalist in the truest sense of the word. She was the living embodiment and definition of internationalism. She shared a belief in humanity, strong institutions, and collaboration between Governments and peoples to tackle hunger and famine and to build a more peaceful world.

We have heard in this debate and over the years the famous quote from Jo’s maiden speech on 3 June—she said that we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than that which divides us. It serves as her epitaph, and it is reflected on her coat of arms in this Chamber. We should also reflect on the words that preceded it. She said:

“Our communities have been deeply enhanced by immigration, be it of Irish Catholics across the constituency or of Muslims from Gujarat in India or from Pakistan, principally from Kashmir. While we celebrate our diversity, what surprises me time and time again as I travel around the constituency is that we are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us.”—[Official Report, 3 June 2015; Vol. 596, c. 674-675.]

Our communities have been deeply enhanced by immigration. That was her view then, and she was right. It rings even more true now, and we must redouble that commitment to being an inclusive society when we face challenges such as those we have seen in recent days, weeks and months. Had Jo lived through these past 10 years, I am sure that her conviction would have remained undimmed. She would have taken the fight to whoever sought to sow discord and division, whether that person was from here or abroad. She would have taken on ethno-nationalism and extremism in all its forms. She would have made the case for a confident, outward-looking, tolerant and inclusive Britain, because that is who she was. That should always inspire and motivate us to speak up.

Jo’s murder as she was heading to her constituency surgery to help people who trusted her and elected her is something that affects so many of us here and across the country. Like many colleagues here, I remember that day vividly. I was in Parliament. In the minutes that passed, we hoped and prayed that she would survive. To this day—and, I suspect, for the rest of my life—I will wonder whether we could have spoken out more about the harassment, intimidation and threats towards elected representatives that some of us experience, and whether we could have warned others. Perhaps that warning might have allowed more awareness. But we will never know—I will never know.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dawn Butler]

I agree 100%: we have to hit them where it hurts. There have to be consequences. We have laws on inciting hatred in our country, and yet these companies seem to openly and flagrantly bypass them. The leader of Reform gets something like half a million or a million views whenever he posts a hate post—he is not that popular by any stretch of the imagination. It just feeds egos, and we need to legislate.

[Sarah Smith]

Does my hon. Friend agree that we would be wise to heed the warning of what happened in the run-up to the first world war in Germany? Fundamentally, radio was a new media then, and there was no regulation of it. Where we landed was the first world war. If we do not recognise that history is in many ways repeating itself as we stand here now, we could pay the significant and ultimate consequence for that.

[Dawn Butler]

In fact, we are already paying the consequences. If we do not take this issue as seriously as we should now, we cannot foresee the additional harms that will happen. The growth of the involuntary celibate movement—the underground movement that we did not really know about, but that we felt through the rise in misogyny and hate against women—was being fuelled by social media. Just because we are not a part of it, it does not mean we do not have to legislate. That is also why I feel that we have to legislate for the individual. As soon as we introduce legislation, it is out of date. We have to legislate to protect the individual—to protect our voice and our image.

I agree with the key calls from the most recent report of the Jo Cox Foundation. One is that political parties should enforce higher standards of conduct. That needs to happen, but some political parties will not care. In fact, some political parties actually recruit people who they know have violent intent and are racist, misogynistic, antisemitic, Islamophobic or homophobic. They actively go out to find them. We have to find a way to combat that.

Another of the report’s calls is that elected representatives and candidates should actively lead by example, maintaining civility during robust democratic debate. We can all take a leaf out of that book. The report also says that tech companies should do more to prevent and reduce online harms; media, digital and political literacy education should be expanded for all ages, to build greater understanding; and lastly, the Government should ensure sustained funding, police resourcing and cross-border co-ordination to protect elected representatives.

It is a sad fact that we need more protection than ever before. It is a sad fact that social media means that our speeches can sometimes be manipulated and misrepresented. The rules of the House are complex, and that can be easily manipulated for a certain agenda. It is a sad fact that that then puts us at risk in this place and outside it. A lot more needs to be done.

Jo was a great advocate for everyone—for people in Africa, for the children, for Syria. She would have hated what was happening right now in our country—she would have hated the rhetoric, and she would have been on the frontline, fighting. I want to end with a poem by a Syrian poet.

“It does not matter that I love her endlessly…

She lives in a world that the devil dreams to flee…

And yet she stands strong with a smile shinning through her lips…

With a laugh musical, poetry to my ears…

She is a brave woman…gentle and free”.

May Members of this House be a little bit more like Jo.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sarah Smith (Hyndburn) (Lab)]

It is an incredible honour to speak today in this debate on the life and legacy of Jo Cox, and particularly challenging to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) and her incredibly moving words. It just makes those of us who were not Jo’s best friends incredibly jealous. We all can recognise that close sisterhood that we have with our closest friends. Like everyone else, I put on record my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) not just for securing today’s debate, but for the amazing, wonderful sister that she is. I thank her for how she has welcomed in later intakes of MPs and, as somebody who came to the House in 2024, the latest intake of MPs in particular.

Legacy is often a concept that it is hard to distinguish, but with Jo, her legacy is tangible because of how she chose to conduct herself and lead her life. It has had a lasting impact not just on this place, as we have heard today, but in our communities up and down the country and around the globe. I will never forget the first constituency Labour party event I attended. Fortunately, it was not a CLP meeting on a Friday night, because perhaps I would not have gone back. [Laughter.] It was an event for women that Jo hosted on her boat before she was elected. True to who she was, it provided an inclusive, empowering and welcoming space for women like me who were just seeking to understand how we could bring change to our communities. Today, more than ever, we need to be the change by creating those spaces, when so much in the political discourse is desperately seeking to intimidate and put off women and minority groups.

Jo lived by the words she expressed in her maiden speech that we have heard so often today, that

“we are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us.”—[Official Report, 3 June 2015; Vol. 596, c. 675.]

It can be hard to hold on to that truth, given the division and vitriol we have seen expressed on our streets, in our media and online, but hold on to it we must as forces seek to polarise us further away from each other in a most un-British way.

Like Jo’s constituency of Batley and Spen, Hyndburn is a diverse community with a significant number of people who come from, or who still have connections with, Kashmir. It is made up of a number of towns, but it is a place where people often feel ignored and forgotten, and where the simple blaming of others can be a tempting answer to the far more complex questions that we know our society faces. In many ways we are more connected than we have ever been but, just as profoundly, we are more disconnected than ever before. An Office for National Statistics survey in 2025 found that about 40% of 16 to 29-year-olds have felt lonely at times—and that is while they supposedly have the world in their back pockets or in their hands.

I believe that the sense of feeling alone has increased. For connection to bring people together, heal mistrust, clean up untruths, and identify the commonalities and common purpose between people and groups, it must be grounded in relationships, which the online world does not enable well. People hide behind a keyboard or anonymity and say things that cause a huge amount of hurt and harm, while bots and algorithms push misinformation and disinformation, with no regard for facts. Owing to the growth of social media, everyone can now be publishers; we can share our opinions from behind a keyboard, even opinions that we do not truly believe. With the development of AI, we can also all be producers. However, unity and authentic cohesion are built on listening, engaging, breaking bread together and enjoying being with each other. Much of how we communicate and trust our fellow human beings is by being there in person and showing up, to understand our differences and find our common ground.

As MPs, we all know that community can and will be messy, but it is wonderfully messy, as people from all walks of life come together and find out that, against all the evidence to the contrary—perpetuated online and through the media—our hopes, values and convictions are often similar, if not just the same. Community is where disagreements can be resolved through respectful dialogue. A healthy society and democracy depend on our ability to bridge differences, find common ground and move forward together rather than apart, but too often we see disagreements framed as moral conflicts that demand that people choose sides—all or nothing. This kind of polarisation pushes us into opposing camps, and makes it harder to recognise our shared values and aspirations.

A recent report by Hope not Hate found that the far right is seeking to engage young people, particularly boys and young men, by using platform algorithms to guide them towards increasingly insular spaces where extremist views are reinforced and intensified. The same approach exists on the far left, often targeting young women and girls. This is perpetuating a sense of polarisation on moral grounds, and targeting people who are actually just desperate for a sense of belonging and an understanding of this world. Online harm is a real threat, with nearly three quarters of my constituents recognising that boys and girls are being subjected to different forms of online harm. Tech companies must do more to protect our young people and our older people, and I urge the Government to be bold and brave in making sure that they do what is required of them, both morally and legally.

Since I became an MP, I have been supporting my constituent Debbie Duncan following the tragic death of her son Jay while he was on holiday in Tenerife. Since those heartbreaking events, Debbie has been hounded by what we have termed “tragedy trollers”—content creators seeking to capitalise on her grief by promoting disinformation, conspiracy theories and actual threats of violence. This has caused harm while Debbie has been navigating the worst nightmare that any parent can face. We must tackle the assumption that anyone is fair game online, especially those serving in public life, but Debbie did not ask for any public attention, let alone the limelight. She is now bravely campaigning for action to be taken against the trolls and the platforms to ensure that no family have to face this sort of abuse at the worst moment of their lives.

My hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley and Jo’s wider family also faced that type of abuse following Jo’s death. It is unforgivable and morally indefensible. I hope that the Government will take action on this and the wider issue of misinformation, because the risk that the rise in misinformation poses to our communities and to our democracy cannot be ignored. We must all choose to confront the climate of hostility, division and malevolence that allows this online practice to fester, which also falsely claims to offer our young people a sense of belonging or empowerment.

If there is a key lesson we can take from Jo’s life, and there are of course many, it is that hope is not passive. It is something we build through action, service and our commitment to one another. At a time when forces seek to divide us, we must honour her legacy not simply by remembering her words, but by living them—choosing dialogue over hostility, community over isolation and common purpose over division. She believed that a fairer, kinder, more tolerant world was possible, and the most fitting tribute is to ensure that both our words and our actions take us closer to that reality.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

That brings us to the Front-Bench winding-up speeches.