Wes Streeting praises Redbridge politics following Jo Cox death
Labour MP Jo Cox, who was shot and killed in Birstall near Leeds. Photo: Yui Mok/PA Wire - Credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images
An MP has praised Redbridge politics, describing constituents as “welcoming and engaging”, the week after Labour MP Jo Cox was killed.
Ilford North MP Wes Streeting said he took security “very seriously”, but he had always found residents in his borough “courteous and respectful”.
Concerns for politicians safety had been raised after Mrs Cox was stabbed and shot to death outside her constituency surgery in Birstall, near Leeds, on Thursday.
Mr Streeting, who was a close friend of the Batley and Spen MP, described the “assassination” as “pretty frightening”.
He told the Recorder: “I want to remember her for how she lived, not she died, for all the fantastic things she did campaigning for social justice. As the prime minister said, there are people around the world who would not be alive today if it wasn’t for Jo.”
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Mr Streeting’s Labour colleague Mike Gapes said MPs “must not let this death or threats ... stop us from doing our job”.
The Ilford South MP continued: “You have to be accessible to your constituents and it would be terrible if that had to stop.
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“We take advice from the police. I’m not going to discuss every threat I have had over the years, but I have had a few.”
Mr Gapes was trolled on Twitter after falling ill late last year.
The veteran MP described Mrs Cox as a “fantastic, articulate and positive campaigner in Parliament and across the world”.
Thomas Mair, 52, from Birstall, has been charged with Mrs Cox’s murder, and will appear at the Old Bailey today (Thursday).
