Kim Leadbeater was out for a run when her phone rang with the news that would shatter her world. "I don't remember a great deal after that, other than I started shaking," she says, recalling the day 10 years ago when her sister, Jo Cox, was murdered outside a library in Birstall, West Yorkshire. The Labour MP for Batley and Spen was killed by an English nationalist in the run-up to the EU referendum. Now, as the Spen Valley MP, Leadbeater describes her parliamentary role as a "job I didn't want" — one she took after her sister's words "politics needs good people to stand up" compelled her to keep the legacy alive.
In the immediate aftermath, Leadbeater says she went into autopilot, looking after her parents and Jo's children. The public outpouring of sympathy was "like a comfort blanket that kept us going." But that comfort has worn thin. Reflecting on the decade since, Leadbeater warns that the consensus around a "kinder, gentler politics" — a phrase coined by then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and echoed by Prime Minister David Cameron — has not held. "Sadly and regrettably, over the last decade things are worse," she says.
“Kim Leadbeater says intolerance has worsened 10 years after her sister Jo Cox's murder.”
The deterioration was not unforeseeable. Hours before Cox was killed, Nigel Farage unveiled his infamous "breaking point" poster, depicting Syrian refugees at a European border. Ten years on, Rob Ford, professor of political science at Manchester University, argues that "a kinder, gentler politics was always a vain hope," with Brexit "accelerated rather than created" the deeper forces driving populism. "There's no centrist position on prejudice," he says.
The signs of deepening division are stark. After Henry Nowak was murdered by a Sikh man in Southampton, Farage called for "pure, cold rage" — rioting followed. Racist mobs burned people out of their homes in Belfast. Last summer, protests outside asylum hotels were persistent, St George's flags flown as symbols of anti-immigration sentiment. In 2021, Conservative MP David Amess was murdered by an Islamic State sympathiser. The same year, a teacher from Batley Grammar School — in Cox's old constituency — went into hiding after showing a Charlie Hebdo cartoon.
Leadbeater now warns against people being pushed "towards the extremes," as she continues trying to "create a positive legacy for Jo." But for those in Birstall, the day is etched in memory. Ian Thompson, who worked at paints firm PPG, recalls being told to stay behind after work because of the murder. "It was a sad day for the area," he says. "She is remembered fondly."