Obama issue White House invite to Jo Cox’s family head of refugee summit

The family of late Labour MP Jo Cox will meet Barack Obama at the White House today on the personal invitation of the President.

Cox was killed on the street in her constituency of Batley and Spen in June, and her widower Brendan has today written for the New York Times saying that he is doing all he can “to advance Jo’s beliefs”.

Jo, who was elected to Parliament in 2015, was a strong advocate of migrant and refugee rights, and a prominent pro-EU campaigner. Her death shocked British politics, with Jeremy Corbyn and David Cameron leading tributes to her in the House of Commons.

Writing for the New York Times, Brendan Cox says he is attending Obama’s summit on providing refugees in the US this week. Now he and their children will also be making a trip to the White House to meet the US President.

“I’ve thought about what we can do to advance Jo’s beliefs,” he wrote. “While she worried about the direction of politics in many countries, she was never despondent. She knew from a lifetime of activism that most people are good, and that human empathy is a powerful force for change.

“That mission, of bringing communities together and advancing mutual understanding, is what I’m now focused on: It is the good that must come out of the horror. This week, I am attending the president’s summit meeting on refugees in New York, a much-needed effort to provide sanctuary to those in need and to challenge the demonisation refugees so often endure. This meeting cannot change the world overnight, but I hope it can encourage other elected officials, many of whom have been too passive, to step up and emulate the president’s leadership.”

He added: “Jo would have maintained her optimism despite all that has happened. Not out of blind faith, but because she believed that what we hold in common is more significant than our differences. It is our job to realise her vision.”

According to The Sun‘s Tom Newton Dunn, Obama has put forward a personal invitation to the Cox family to visit the White House today ahead of the summit.

Labour Party members in Batley and Spen will meet later today to select a candidate for the by-election on October 20.