Jo Cox's sister warns against people being pushed 'towards the extremes'

The sister of murdered MP Jo Cox has warned against people being pushed "towards the extremes", as she marks the 10th anniversary of her death.

Ms Cox was killed by neo-Nazi Thomas Mair in her Batley and Spen constituency on 16 June 2016, during the Brexit referendum campaign.

Kim Leadbeater, who was elected MP for the seat following the tragedy in Birstall, West Yorkshire, said her sister would have been "deeply concerned" about the current divisions in society.

But she would not have shied away from the challenge of uniting people, Ms Leadbeater added.

And she said it was important to "push back on the divisive rhetoric and the dangerous language" while declining to name names, as it would give "bad behaviour oxygen".

Following the case of Henry Nowak, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage faced criticism for saying the public should feel "pure, cold rage" about what happened to the student.

The 18-year-old was murdered last December by Vickrum Digwa, who falsely claimed he had been racially abused, and Mr Nowak was handcuffed by police.

Officers ignored Mr Nowak's pleas that he could not breathe as he lay dying.

There were violent protests earlier this month in Southampton near where the teenager was fatally stabbed.

Also, billionaire X owner Elon Musk was criticised over social media's role in last week's violence in Belfast where homes were set alight and people targeted based on their race.

'I worry about where we end up'

Ms Leadbeater, 50, said it is "absolutely fine to be angry about things", from concerns around immigration to the cost of living and housing, but not to stoke division.

She said: "They seem to be shouting and not listening. And what that shouting does is it stokes that division. And it only takes one individual to not be able to draw the line between the anger and the violent language, and then acts of violence. And I find that deeply disturbing.

"And I worry, if that continues, where we end up as a society.

"So I suppose the 10th anniversary of Jo's murder is a moment in time to say to everybody, whatever your political views are, whatever your ideologies are, let's keep them in a safe, sensible space and not push people towards the extremes because there are no wins in that."

Ms Leadbeater remembered her sister as being "full of kindness, full of compassion, but also full of a steely determination to make a difference and to get things done".

She said: "Even though she would look, as I am doing at the moment, at some of the challenges we face as a country and be deeply concerned, she would not stop working hard to address those challenges and to look at how we can bring people together."

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Ms Cox, who was aged 41 when she was shot and stabbed, days before the Brexit referendum, had spoken against division in her maiden speech in parliament a year earlier.

She told the Commons: "We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us."

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