Mainstream politics is “too complacent” about increase in abuse, says Brendan Cox

Late Labour MP Jo Cox had “personally” felt a recent shift in politics that had led to a focus on division and an increase in abuse before her death, according to her husband Brendan.

Despite her natural optimism, she had been aware of an “increasing propensity to blame others”, including refugees, and was frustrated at the abuse politicians receive. This included “torrents of abuse” when she had criticised Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Speaking on the Marr Show this morning, Brendan Cox said that his wife “found it very hard to deal with” the change in the political climate that normalised such actions. He warned that he believed there is “something stirring” among the extremes of politics that mainstream politicians risk being “too complacent” about.

He said that he and Jo “have always been optimistic people. Optimistic in our own lives, optimistic about politics, about the future of our country.”

“In the last couple of years we started to feel that something was going wrong,” he said. “Not just in the UK, but if you look at the rise of Trump in the US, Le Pen in France, the AfD in Germany, there’s this focus on what divides us rather than what brings us together, which I don’t think we’ve seen in this form really since the 1930s.

“We felt it very strongly but I think Jo also felt it very personally. When she, for example, criticised Jeremy Corbyn for his leadership, the torrents of abuse she got from that. Or when she voted a different way from some of the rest of her party on Syria – again, the amount of abuse that she got.

“Angela Eagle got a similar, unbelievable level of abuse for standing against Jeremy Corbyn.”

He said that while Jo “was so personable and engaging on a human level, even if she disagreed with people”, she found it “very frustrating” that others would “assume bad faith” in her decisions. “Suddenly from being elected, she had this whole coterie of people who said they hated her, because of what she represented,” he said. “She found it very hard to deal with.”

Part of the root of the problem, he said, is that “there has been a contempt that has been bred for institutions… particularly [in] politics.”

He added that the way to fend off the problem is by the centre of politics “reseizing a patriotic narrative” that doesn’t blame “the migrant, the refugee, or the Muslim for what might be going on in our country at any individual time”, warning that “there is something stirring which at the moment I think the political centre is too complacent about.”

However, Brendan also said that the mass public gatherings to show respect for Jo had helped their children understand the tragedy better, with their young son commenting: “I knew lots of people loved Mummy, but I didn’t realise this many people did.”