The sister of Jo Cox has urged people to find “common ground” in the UK, calling out those who are “trying to sow division” in UK society.
Today, Tuesday 16 June 2026, marks the 10th anniversary of Cox’s death.
The late Labour MP was killed by neo-Nazi Thomas Mair in her Batley and Spen constituency on 16 June 2016, during the Brexit referendum campaign.
Following the tragedy, Cox’s sister, Kim Leadbeater, was elected as MP for the Yorkshire seat.
Speaking to the BBC on the anniversary of her sister’s murder, Leadbeater recalled Cox’s maiden speech in the House of Commons, when she used the phrase “we have far more in common than that which divides us”.
Leadbeater said it was voices like her sister’s that need to “be the loudest now.”
She continued: “Because of some of the challenges that we face, unfortunately there are people who are trying to sow division.
“But we’ve got to work together to address those challenges rather than try and pit people against each other and create a sense of division.
“We’ve got to make sure that the voices of positivity and perseverance and resilience are the ones that are amplified and not the voices of people who don’t show who we actually are as a country.”
Leadbeater said that things are “probably worse” in British society since Cox’s murder, and that it is “quite depressing” that politics and society still are so divided.
This sentiment was echoed by Cox’s widower Brendan, who shared a moving post on social media on the eve of the 10th anniversary.
He wrote: “At anniversaries I try to be optimistic about the future. But not this time. In the ten years since she was killed we have gone backwards & I fear our democracy is now at risk.”
Cox accused government’s of being “complacent, negligent and often grossly incompetent” for allowing “extremists, hostile states and algorithmic social media” to ‘drive us to the edge.’
He said division needed to be treated as a “national emergency.”
In a statement on to mark the 10th anniversary of Cox’s assassination, prime minister Keir Starmer called on all Brits to stand against “hatred and division.”
“The best way to honour her memory is to stand firmly against hatred and division, to bring communities together, and to show, through both big acts and small, the compassion, decency and solidarity that define our nation at its best,” he said.