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| Jo Cox's friends say her energy for life was 'immeasurable' | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Jo Cox may have been petite (“she wasn’t 5ft, she was at least 5ft 1in or 5ft 2in on a good day,” joked her husband, Brendan, during a tribute), but to all who knew her she was a towering figure, and not just in politics. | Jo Cox may have been petite (“she wasn’t 5ft, she was at least 5ft 1in or 5ft 2in on a good day,” joked her husband, Brendan, during a tribute), but to all who knew her she was a towering figure, and not just in politics. |
| Gemma Mortensen remembers a younger Jo firing out “kit list” emails to friends ahead of trekking adventures, ordering one person to carry huge blocks of cheddar cheese, another to stock up on that “disgusting beanfeast stuff” and someone else to bring along bags of wine. | Gemma Mortensen remembers a younger Jo firing out “kit list” emails to friends ahead of trekking adventures, ordering one person to carry huge blocks of cheddar cheese, another to stock up on that “disgusting beanfeast stuff” and someone else to bring along bags of wine. |
| Then they would be off, some of them amateurs in the trail of energetic Jo and her tireless husband, on a sleeper train that would spit them out in remote parts of Scotland to tackle yet another Munro. | Then they would be off, some of them amateurs in the trail of energetic Jo and her tireless husband, on a sleeper train that would spit them out in remote parts of Scotland to tackle yet another Munro. |
| Mortensen’s memories are of Jo lugging along a rucksack twice the size of her, which would stretch down below her knees as she marched along “beaming” and singing folk songs. | Mortensen’s memories are of Jo lugging along a rucksack twice the size of her, which would stretch down below her knees as she marched along “beaming” and singing folk songs. |
| “On rucksack to body mass ratio she was unquestionably the most hardcore,” says Mortensen, laughing sadly about what she says are among the most special memories of her life. | “On rucksack to body mass ratio she was unquestionably the most hardcore,” says Mortensen, laughing sadly about what she says are among the most special memories of her life. |
| Then she remembers a simple and touching image of Jo after giving birth to her first child, Cuillin, that she feels sums her up: of her friend standing under a rain cover, breastfeeding her baby, at the top of a mountain. | Then she remembers a simple and touching image of Jo after giving birth to her first child, Cuillin, that she feels sums her up: of her friend standing under a rain cover, breastfeeding her baby, at the top of a mountain. |
| “She was authentic, not just in work, but in life,” Mortensen adds. | “She was authentic, not just in work, but in life,” Mortensen adds. |
| Only Jo could have mastered the so-called Inaccessible Pinnacle and then abseiled down while fighting morning sickness from a pregnancy that had just begun. | Only Jo could have mastered the so-called Inaccessible Pinnacle and then abseiled down while fighting morning sickness from a pregnancy that had just begun. |
| She and Brendan had a dream to climb all the Munros together. During a painful trial, he reached the top of what would have been her 100th – Ben Oss – placing her hat at the top and insisting that she would have “loved the adventure, the snow and the peace”. | She and Brendan had a dream to climb all the Munros together. During a painful trial, he reached the top of what would have been her 100th – Ben Oss – placing her hat at the top and insisting that she would have “loved the adventure, the snow and the peace”. |
| Most of her friends keep returning to the same themes as they talk of Jo: of a woman with the perfect mix of idealism and pragmatism; who knew nothing of tribalism but would instead share her conviction that politics could change the world with politicians of any stripe; who cared deeply for others; and to whom family – Brendan, Cuillin and daughter Lejla – and others, were everything. | Most of her friends keep returning to the same themes as they talk of Jo: of a woman with the perfect mix of idealism and pragmatism; who knew nothing of tribalism but would instead share her conviction that politics could change the world with politicians of any stripe; who cared deeply for others; and to whom family – Brendan, Cuillin and daughter Lejla – and others, were everything. |
| And there’s no friend who shows the slightest hint of surprise about that final act of kindness, revealed in court, of protecting her colleagues with the shout of “get away you two – let him hurt me”. | And there’s no friend who shows the slightest hint of surprise about that final act of kindness, revealed in court, of protecting her colleagues with the shout of “get away you two – let him hurt me”. |
| Her husband said simply: “This is who Jo was.” | Her husband said simply: “This is who Jo was.” |
| “She was very giving,” adds Lucy Powell, a fellow Labour MP who had known Jo since they worked together as parliamentary researchers in the 1990s. “Always, always putting others before herself. Not a shred of me, me, me.” | “She was very giving,” adds Lucy Powell, a fellow Labour MP who had known Jo since they worked together as parliamentary researchers in the 1990s. “Always, always putting others before herself. Not a shred of me, me, me.” |
| Jane Brady, a close friend and one of Jo’s 15 best women at her wedding, who has been alongside her family at the trial, tells a similar story. | Jane Brady, a close friend and one of Jo’s 15 best women at her wedding, who has been alongside her family at the trial, tells a similar story. |
| “Her energy for life was immeasurable, her humanity and genuine desire for good unmatched,” she says. “Most of all though, she was a mum who deeply loved her children and wanted the world to be a better place for all children.” | “Her energy for life was immeasurable, her humanity and genuine desire for good unmatched,” she says. “Most of all though, she was a mum who deeply loved her children and wanted the world to be a better place for all children.” |
| She remembers the last time they spoke, when Jo “was very tired, the kids had been poorly and she wondered if she really was making a difference. I just want to say to her, ‘Look at the world, Jo! The world is so much better for having had you in it.’” | She remembers the last time they spoke, when Jo “was very tired, the kids had been poorly and she wondered if she really was making a difference. I just want to say to her, ‘Look at the world, Jo! The world is so much better for having had you in it.’” |
| For Mortensen, “the faultline running through it all” was fairness. She talks of Jo and Brendan being a rare couple who “lived out their ideas”, getting married on a remote peninsula, followed by a camping celebration, and then making a barge their home. | For Mortensen, “the faultline running through it all” was fairness. She talks of Jo and Brendan being a rare couple who “lived out their ideas”, getting married on a remote peninsula, followed by a camping celebration, and then making a barge their home. |
| Later they raised their children on a houseboat – named Ederlezi after a folk song – which was moored in east London, near Tower Bridge. And every year on the summer solstice they would invite more than 100 friends and dozens of children to their remote cottage by the Welsh border. It had no electricity or water and guests carried drinks and food by foot or canoe. | Later they raised their children on a houseboat – named Ederlezi after a folk song – which was moored in east London, near Tower Bridge. And every year on the summer solstice they would invite more than 100 friends and dozens of children to their remote cottage by the Welsh border. It had no electricity or water and guests carried drinks and food by foot or canoe. |
| Mortensen describes her friend as a joyful person who was grounded by her children, deeply empathetic, and who “loved to dance”. She was deeply passionate about driving change – from journeys to witness the injustices in Palestine, to fighting to get more women into positions of significance, to the civilian suffering in Syria or the sorrowful stories of loneliness in Yorkshire that were to become her key campaigns in parliament. | Mortensen describes her friend as a joyful person who was grounded by her children, deeply empathetic, and who “loved to dance”. She was deeply passionate about driving change – from journeys to witness the injustices in Palestine, to fighting to get more women into positions of significance, to the civilian suffering in Syria or the sorrowful stories of loneliness in Yorkshire that were to become her key campaigns in parliament. |
| Everything about Jo was infused with a touch of Yorkshire, where she grew up with a mother who was a school secretary and a father who was a factory worker. There was nothing metropolitan or elite about the upbringing of a woman who would go on to study at Cambridge and become a passionate campaigner for the EU, before heading to Brussels to work with the MEP Glenys Kinnock and then for Oxfam. | Everything about Jo was infused with a touch of Yorkshire, where she grew up with a mother who was a school secretary and a father who was a factory worker. There was nothing metropolitan or elite about the upbringing of a woman who would go on to study at Cambridge and become a passionate campaigner for the EU, before heading to Brussels to work with the MEP Glenys Kinnock and then for Oxfam. |
| Her work as head of policy for the global charity turned heads across the sectors and politics. And Kate Norgrove, a friend who worked with her, called her an amazing mentor who constantly tried to help support those around her. | Her work as head of policy for the global charity turned heads across the sectors and politics. And Kate Norgrove, a friend who worked with her, called her an amazing mentor who constantly tried to help support those around her. |
| Jo later moved to work for Sarah Brown’s White Ribbon Alliance, focused on maternal mortality, and then chaired the Labour Women’s Network, which aimed to drive up the number of female MPs. | Jo later moved to work for Sarah Brown’s White Ribbon Alliance, focused on maternal mortality, and then chaired the Labour Women’s Network, which aimed to drive up the number of female MPs. |
| After having two children, she was looking to set up a thinktank aimed at helping women to organise and represent themselves. In her “non-sectarian” way, she was emailing friends asking for advice about not just Labour but “Tory/right-of-centre men and women” to take part. | After having two children, she was looking to set up a thinktank aimed at helping women to organise and represent themselves. In her “non-sectarian” way, she was emailing friends asking for advice about not just Labour but “Tory/right-of-centre men and women” to take part. |
| Then she was given the chance to go for a job that had always been the dream: to represent her home constituency of Batley and Spen. And she spilled into parliament with an excitement and enthusiasm that inspired all those around her, from dozens on the Labour benches to many whom she worked with across the floor, like Tory MP Andrew Mitchell, who called her a “5ft bundle of Yorkshire grit”. | Then she was given the chance to go for a job that had always been the dream: to represent her home constituency of Batley and Spen. And she spilled into parliament with an excitement and enthusiasm that inspired all those around her, from dozens on the Labour benches to many whom she worked with across the floor, like Tory MP Andrew Mitchell, who called her a “5ft bundle of Yorkshire grit”. |
| “Jo built friendships as if it were her job. She always wanted us to have a plan to be better MPs, better feminists, better friends to each other,” says the MP Jess Phillips, who says she misses her friend every day, and whom she still imagines running in huge heels down the halls. | “Jo built friendships as if it were her job. She always wanted us to have a plan to be better MPs, better feminists, better friends to each other,” says the MP Jess Phillips, who says she misses her friend every day, and whom she still imagines running in huge heels down the halls. |
| Jo shared an office with fellow MP Stephen Kinnock – a friend from her days in Brussels, when she worked for his mother. He remembers the “raucous laugh and infectious good humour” of a “political soulmate”. What would Jo think now, he often muses, imagining her arriving at work after the election of Donald Trump. “She would be saying: ‘What the hell is happening in our world? What should we be doing?’ and ‘What does it mean about the values we cherish?’” They would have had a field day over the president-elect’s suggestion of ambassador Farage, he says. | Jo shared an office with fellow MP Stephen Kinnock – a friend from her days in Brussels, when she worked for his mother. He remembers the “raucous laugh and infectious good humour” of a “political soulmate”. What would Jo think now, he often muses, imagining her arriving at work after the election of Donald Trump. “She would be saying: ‘What the hell is happening in our world? What should we be doing?’ and ‘What does it mean about the values we cherish?’” They would have had a field day over the president-elect’s suggestion of ambassador Farage, he says. |
| Stories from Kinnock and Powell, and Jo’s parliamentary assistant, Ruth Price, make it clear how much her motherhood was spread through her work. Kinnock remembers fondly reading to the children in the office, while Powell talks of school holidays when they would “tag-team” to vote in the chamber. | Stories from Kinnock and Powell, and Jo’s parliamentary assistant, Ruth Price, make it clear how much her motherhood was spread through her work. Kinnock remembers fondly reading to the children in the office, while Powell talks of school holidays when they would “tag-team” to vote in the chamber. |
| Price remembers a parliamentary Christmas party where Jo and the children raced through parliament, their faces painted as tigers as they roared at each other. | Price remembers a parliamentary Christmas party where Jo and the children raced through parliament, their faces painted as tigers as they roared at each other. |
| Now Jo will be remembered by the Jo Cox Foundation, whose director, Iona Lawrence, sums up what will be done: “One of the joys of Jo was that she cared about a huge raft of issues – domestic and international. The thing that connects them is Jo. | Now Jo will be remembered by the Jo Cox Foundation, whose director, Iona Lawrence, sums up what will be done: “One of the joys of Jo was that she cared about a huge raft of issues – domestic and international. The thing that connects them is Jo. |
| “To start with was her drive to focus on civilian protection in Syria and on loneliness in the UK, as well as her passion about getting more women into public service and anything that could be done to make Westminster more family friendly.” | “To start with was her drive to focus on civilian protection in Syria and on loneliness in the UK, as well as her passion about getting more women into public service and anything that could be done to make Westminster more family friendly.” |
| The campaigns will draw on Jo’s now-famous comment that diverse communities in Britain had “more in common” that that which divides them. Brendan’s most recent tweet reminds people that “Jo would not want to rest in peace” but forever be an activist and passionate force for good in the world. | The campaigns will draw on Jo’s now-famous comment that diverse communities in Britain had “more in common” that that which divides them. Brendan’s most recent tweet reminds people that “Jo would not want to rest in peace” but forever be an activist and passionate force for good in the world. |
| Kirsty McNeill, director of policy at Save the Children and a close friend, says: “In the midst of our grief we want Jo to be lionised, but not dehumanised. She wasn’t some two-dimensional figure, but was humanity itself – impish, playful, energetic, determined, vibrant, loving, funny and strong. She never just said ‘What do you think?’, always ‘What should we do?’. On any question, whether it was getting more women into politics or dealing with appalling attacks on civilians around the world, Jo never, ever thought the path was impossible. | Kirsty McNeill, director of policy at Save the Children and a close friend, says: “In the midst of our grief we want Jo to be lionised, but not dehumanised. She wasn’t some two-dimensional figure, but was humanity itself – impish, playful, energetic, determined, vibrant, loving, funny and strong. She never just said ‘What do you think?’, always ‘What should we do?’. On any question, whether it was getting more women into politics or dealing with appalling attacks on civilians around the world, Jo never, ever thought the path was impossible. |
| “So please don’t remember her as a symbol, but as somebody always in motion, always creating waves, always pushing us to do and be better. We’re left with our memories and her example as a guide in the years ahead.” | “So please don’t remember her as a symbol, but as somebody always in motion, always creating waves, always pushing us to do and be better. We’re left with our memories and her example as a guide in the years ahead.” |