Former Oxfam Activist Was A Labour 'Star'

Jo Cox was elected as Labour MP for Batley and Spen in the 2015 general election.

She secured a majority of 6,057, with fellow Labour MP John Mann saying: "She is one of the stars of the new intake."  

Ms Cox was born in Batley, West Yorkshire, grew up in Heckmondwike and studied at Cambridge University, graduating in 1995. 

The 41-year-old was married with two young daughters, and it would have been her 42nd birthday next Wednesday.   

She lived with her family on a converted barge, moored near London's Tower Bridge. 

Prior to entering politics she was head of policy for the charity Oxfam, which described her as a "passionate advocate on humanitarian issues". 

She was also an adviser to Sarah Brown and Baroness Kinnock, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and to anti-slavery campaign group The Freedom Fund. 

Ms Cox was one of 36 Labour MPs who nominated Jeremy Corbyn for the party leadership last year. 

But she actually voted for Liz Kendall, saying last month that she had regretted nominating Mr Corbyn. 

Last October, she launched the All Party Parliamentary Friends of Syria group, becoming its chair.

Jo Cox was married with two children

In the same month, she co-authored an article in The Observer with the Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, arguing that British military forces could help to achieve an ethical solution to the conflict in Syria. 

She abstained in the Commons vote last autumn on allowing British military action in Syria, insisting that any solution to the conflict needed to be more wide-ranging. 

Despite a keen interest in overseas issues, Ms Cox had spoken of the importance of her roots. 

Speaking to the Yorkshire Post last December, Ms Cox said that after a happy childhood, going to Cambridge University had unsettled her. 

"I never really grew up being political or Labour.

"It kind of came at Cambridge where it was just a realisation that where you were born mattered.

"That how you spoke mattered... who you knew mattered.

"I didn’t really speak right or knew the right people...

"To be honest my experience at Cambridge really knocked me for about five years."

Ultimately, though, it proved useful. 

She told the paper: "Having gone through that experience of being in a Cambridge college, surviving it and building myself up, meant that coming here (Westminster) was a walk in the park, and a lot of the same people are here!"