The widower of murdered MP Jo Cox has said the whole of Britain should be proud of her bravery, and ashamed by the cowardice of her killer, Thomas Mair.
In an emotional statement read outside court after Mair was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison, Brendan Cox said the MP's family "have nothing but pity" for the white supremacist.
"For the person who did this, we have nothing but pity that his life was so devoid of love and consumed with hatred that this became his desperate and cowardly attempt to find meaning," he said flanked by other members of the family outside the Old Bailey.
"The killing of Jo was a political act, an act of terrorism – but in the history of such acts it was perhaps the most incompetent and self-defeating."
Brendan Cox said the murder of his wife, mother to their two children, had created "an outpouring of love".
"An act designed to drive communities apart which has instead pulled them together. An act designed to silence a voice which instead has allowed millions of others to hear it," he said.
"As a family we will not respond to hatred with hatred. We will love like Jo did. And know that although she is dead the ideas and values that she held so dear will live on. And know that although she is not with us, her energy and her love are hard-wired into our children for the rest of their lives."
Jo Cox, 41, was shot and stabbed a week before the EU referendum in June in Birstall, West Yorkshire, by 53-year-old Mair, one of her constituents, who chose not to give any evidence in his defence.
In a pre-recorded interview with BBC News, Brendan Cox said: “I think for me there’s a contrast there between the bravery of Jo, what she stood for, what she fought for, and in her final moments asking her friends who were trying to help her to get away so they wouldn’t get hurt, with the cowardice of a man who attacks her – a 5ft woman – with a gun and a knife, and then is too scared to take the dock and to account for his actions in court."
"Britain is ashamed of him & very proud of Jo" Brendan Cox on the man who murdered his MP wife, Jo Cox… https://t.co/FvTnhDPqWt
Speaking outside court, Brendan Cox thanked members of the public for their response after his wife's murder, for the people who risked their lives to try to save her, and all the well wishers who had sent the family love and thoughts during the trial, as well as the police, emergency services and the courts.
"This has been Britain at its best – compassionate, courageous and kind. It has given us great strength and solace in the past few weeks," he said.
While Jo Cox was known as an MP, campaigner, and activist, "first and foremost she was a sister, a daughter, an auntie, a wife, a friend and above all a mum to two young children who love her with all their being," he continued.
"All their lives they have been enveloped in her love, excited by her energy and inspired by her example. We try now to focus not on how unlucky we were to have had her taken from us. But how lucky we were to have her in our lives for so long."
Brendan Cox added: "Finally, we also hope the country will take something from this. That Jo’s death will have meaning.
"That those in politics, the media or in our own communities who seek to divide us will face an unassailable wall of British tolerance and the articulation of Jo’s belief - that we hold more in common than that which divides us."
