It should have been Jo Cox’s 42nd birthday. She would have spent it, her husband Brendan said, “dashing around the streets of her home town” campaigning to remain in the EU, just as she had spent the day before she died on an inflatable boat on the Thames with her two young children, in defiance of Nigel Farage’s pro-Brexit flotilla, flying a banner that read a determined “In”.
Instead, six days after the Labour MP was killed outside a constituency surgery, her family, friends and many more who had never known her came together in events across Britain and the world to celebrate her life, and to insist that her legacy be one of love, tolerance and unity.
Thousands gathered in Trafalgar Square, central London, on Wednesday to hear the MP’s widower describe his wife as a “ball of energy” who had “come to symbolise something much bigger in our country and our world that is under threat” through her commitment to tolerance and uncompromising stance against extremism.
Fighting back tears, Brendan Cox told the crowd that his wife’s killing had been political. “It was an act of terror designed to advance hatred towards others. What a beautiful irony it is that an act designed to advance hatred has in fact instead generated such an outpouring of love.”
The event also included tributes from the U2 singer Bono, actors Bill Nighy and Gillian Anderson and the humanitarian Malala Yousafzai, who said: “Jo’s life is proof that a message of peace is more powerful than any weapon of war. Once again the extremists have failed.”
But despite the calls for unity, the event was marred by two planes, one trailing a “Leave” banner, which repeatedly flew over the square during Brendan Cox’s tribute. One of those present, Lily Caprani, deputy executive director of Unicef, wrote on Twitter:
A vote leave plane just flew over the Jo Cox memorial. Seriously. No words for how inappropriate that is. No words. #MoreInCommon
— Lily Caprani (@LilyCaprani) June 22, 2016
In the market square in Batley, West Yorkshire – the MP’s hometown – about 2,000 people heard her sister, Kim Leadbeater, express her family’s gratitude for the “outpouring of comfort and support” that has followed the killing. While some, she said, would focus on continuing the “big picture” of Cox’s work, she urged others to integrate “tolerance, peace and understanding” in their everyday lives.
Watched by her parents, Gordon and Jean, Leabeater said: “From Batley to Burma and the Spen Valley to Syria, Jo’s life was centred around helping people and standing up for the causes she felt so passionately about.
“My sister would want her murder to mobilise people, to get on with things, to try to make a positive difference in whatever way we can, to come together and unite against hate and division and to fight instead for inclusion, love and unity. In Jo’s honour, and on behalf of her grieving family, I urge you to please do so.”
Many of those present, including the handful of police, wore white roses – the symbol of Yorkshire – and brought flowers to contribute to the large pile outside the town hall.
Other commemorations were held in Dublin, Nairobi, Sydney, Brussels, and in New York, where several hundred people who had gathered near the UN heard Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, read a statement from Barack Obama.
“We must never doubt how much things can change,” the US president said. “Jo knew that our politics at its best still works. If we recognise our humanity in each other we can advance social justice, human dignity and the peace that we seek in the world.”
The former Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, urged people on Twitter to “keep [the MP’s] legacy alive”, posting a link to a fundraising page that has raised more than £1.3m for causes Cox supported.
Other tributes included a video recorded by the band Portishead, which included a quote from Cox’s maiden speech to parliament that said: “We have far more in common than which divides us.”
In Edinburgh, about 100 people gathered on Portobello beach, with candles spelling out the phrase “more in common” pressed into the sand.
They heard her friend, Oxfam colleague and former bandmate Kim Wallace describe her as “fearless”. She said: “Jo was killed by hatred and if that happened to anyone else, Jo would not have been silent. She would’ve called it for what it was. I encourage you all to love the world like Jo did.”
Brendan Cox said he had wanted the couple’s two young children, Cuillin and Lejla, who were present at the Trafalgar Square event, “to see what their mum meant to all of you”. Their day had begun at the family’s home on a barge on the Thames, where neighbours had carpeted one community dinghy named Yorkshire Rose with 1,000 roses. Brendan Cox and his children travelled up the river to Westminster, where the dinghy will be tethered for a week.
He described his wife as “the best mum that any child could wish for. And wish we do, to have her back in our lives.” He said he and the children had spoken every day since her death about “the things we will miss, the memories we will cherish. We try to remember not how cruelly she was taken from us, but how unbelieveably lucky we were to have her in our lives for so long.”
He added: “I hope that everyone will understand that after this event it will be time for me and all our family to grieve in private.”
Additional reporting by Severin Carrell, Amber Jamieson, Ione Wells, Michael Slezak