Jo Cox killer jailed for life, to be released only by death or the Home Secretary

Thomas Mair, 53, who shot and stabbed British Labour MP Jo Cox as she campaigned for the Remain vote last June, has been imprisoned for life. The jury at the Old Bailey took just an hour to reach their verdict.

When handing down judgement, Mr Justice Wilkie, the presiding judge, said the case is so grave that it merits a full life term. Mair will stay in prison until he dies, or is released by order of the Home Secretary in exceptional circumstances.

Mair shouted “Britain first” as he murdered Mrs Cox on the street and grievously injured a 78-year-old man, Bernard Kenny, who was the only bystander brave enough to go to her aid. But the judge said the true patriot was Mrs Cox. Mair’s inspiration was not love of country but admiration for Nazism, he said, which was “a betrayal of our parents’ generation’s huge sacrifices during World War II”.

The murder, Mr Justice Wilkie said, was committed to advance a political cause of violent white supremacism, associated with Nazism.

The ugliest people in the world right now are white supremacists and those who egg them on or vote to help put them in power over others.

Jo Cox

Thomas Mair