Legacy of Jo Cox

Susan Murray Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Susan Murray (Mid Dunbartonshire) (LD)]

My goodness, how do you follow that? I thank our friend the hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) for that wonderful tribute to her sister. I am grateful to speak in this debate and to have the opportunity to honour the work and legacy of Jo Cox. Jo served in the House before my time here began, but I want to speak in the debate because of the way she approached politics, always understanding that we have more in common than divides us.

In preparing for the debate, I looked not just at how Jo is remembered but the work she did. What stands out is a woman who did politics that was practical, human and rooted in the lives of people who too often went unheard. In her work on Syria, when she pressed the House to look clearly at the reality facing civilians and to recognise that sympathy was not enough, she said:

“It is now time for us to listen and to act.”—[Official Report, 12 October 2015; Vol. 600, c. 140.]

That, for me, is the heart of Jo’s legacy: not just compassion, but compassion turned into action. That is the message we need to reflect on today.

Too often, we see how easy it is to create anger or mistrust—to develop rhetoric to tear things down. We see that today in those stoking racial hatred and religious division. It is much harder to make real positive change, but that is exactly what Jo did. The Jo Cox Foundation has carried that work on, and the Great Get Together is a fantastic example of that. It is not complicated and it does not ask people to agree on everything; it simply asks people to come together to share food, to talk, to meet neighbours and to remember that community works in all its diversity.

We see that in our own constituencies, too. I invite Members to Sked’s Garden on 21 June, where we are having a massive barefoot ceilidh as a free event, which everyone is invited to. In Mid Dunbartonshire I see other groups, such as the Men’s Shed, Apna Ghar, the Hive, GRACE—Group Recovery Aftercare Community Enterprise—and Gavin’s Mill, everything from heritage groups to community development trusts, offering people a safe and welcoming place to rebuild lives, reduce social isolation and promote wellbeing at home and internationally.

My own life took an unexpected turn when I became a full-time carer, and I experienced how important the support of community is. Jo understood that loneliness is not a side issue; it is something that can quietly shrink a person’s life. It affects old people, younger people, carers, bereaved families, and many people who would never say out loud that they are lonely. Her work helped Parliament to take that seriously, and we should keep taking it seriously.

We all have lessons to learn from Jo’s example. We can disagree strongly, and at times maybe we should, but we cannot treat each other as enemies because of our differing views. We must look for common ground to build solutions on. The best tribute we can pay is not just to remember her, but to continue the work she left for us: to encourage more women to choose to enter politics, to choose to listen, act and build community, and to choose to make our politics a little braver and a little kinder.