MPs will wear white roses for day of tributes in memory of Jo Cox

MPs will gather at a special session of Parliament today and wear the Yorkshire white rose to pay tribute to murdered MP Jo Cox.

Politicians have been recalled from recess – originally planned for EU referendum campaigning – to remember the life’s work of the Batley and Spen and MP, who was killed just 13 months after being elected.

Under a plan floated by a Conservative backbencher, Jason McCartney, MPs would leave their normal places on the Commons benches and sit with members of other parties in a display of unity. However this now appears less likely with MPs preferring to sit with their closest political friends, who tend to be from the same party.

The Commons session will begin at 2.30pm. The tributes will be a “dignified occasion, not a time for lots of long speeches”, Jeremy Corbyn told the Andrew Marr Show yesterday. The Labour leader also signalled he was open to the idea of mixed seating.

Chris Grayling, Leader of the House, said conventional party politics should be “a million miles away” from the day’s events.

The tributes represent MPs’ chance to show their respect for Cox following yesterday’s emotional tributes in St Peter’s Church, in Birstall, in Cox’s West Yorkshire constituency. At the Sunday morning service Rev Paul Knight described Cox, a former Oxfam executive who visited many of the world’s troublespots, as a “21st century Good Samaritan” and praised her as a “fervent advocate for the poor and the oppressed”.

“Her humanity was powerful and compelling and we would do well to recognise her as an amazing example, a 21st Century Good Samaritan.”