On behalf of the National Assembly for Wales, I want to express our heartfelt sympathy to the family, friends and colleagues of Jo Cox MP, who died so tragically last week. Jo Cox was killed in the course of her public duty, faithfully serving her constituents as a democratically elected Member of Parliament.

The shock and sadness of this loss has been felt greatly right across the United Kingdom, and the many who attended a vigil in her memory outside this Senedd building are testament to that. Her loss has been felt deeply as a personal tragedy for those who knew and loved her, but also as an attack on our democratic life. We will continue to uphold the values that Jo stood for—compassion, tolerance and respect—in her honour.

Before I ask for statements from party leaders, and as we stand to honour Jo Cox’s life, let us do so by recalling the words of Ifor ap Glyn’s poem read in this Chamber only two weeks ago today:

‘we give thanks there are no bullet holes / in the pillars of this house, / just a cloud of witnesses / who’ll maintain us in all manner of beliefs.

Let us therefore remember Jo Cox, Member of Parliament.

Assembly Members stood for a minute’s silence.

Thank you. I now invite party leaders, and others, to say a few words, starting with the First Minister, Carwyn Jones.

Diolch, Lywydd. Jo Cox, or Jo Leadbeater, or little Jo, as many in Wales will have remembered her, led a full and brilliant life. She was known to many of us in Welsh Labour when she worked for Glenys Kinnock, and developed her passion for international development and social justice there. There is little doubt that the attack on Jo Cox was political in nature. It was an unforgivable and brutal attack, not just on a female politician, going about her work, but against everything she stood for. But it’s not the politics we should reflect on today, it’s the person.

She had very many friends in Wales, and everyone knew her political career was going to be something special, not because of her ambition, but because of her fierce determination, her decency, and her absolute fundamental desire to get things done. That meant offering the hand of friendship across the political divide. Tomorrow would have been Jo’s forty-second birthday, and there’ll be events across the world, where people will repeat that phrase that has already become a mantra,

‘we are far more united and have far more in common…than the things that divide us.’

Llywydd, Jo’s life was cut short, but it was a life lived in full, and a life that had given us inspiration. And it is that inspiration we must focus on today and in the future, and not just the devastating events that took place last Thursday.

I now call on the leader of the opposition, Leanne Wood.

Diolch, Lywydd. I never met Jo Cox, but I’m sure I’m not alone in identifying with aspects about what we’ve heard about her, and with some of the politics that she represented. Rather than use my words today, I’d prefer to use hers. In her maiden speech in Westminster, Jo Cox MP said,

‘Our communities have been deeply enhanced by immigration, be it of Irish Catholics across the constituency or of Muslims from Gujarat in India or from Pakistan, principally from Kashmir. While we celebrate our diversity, what surprises me time and time again as I travel around the constituency is that we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.’

Now, it remains to be proven beyond all reasonable doubt whether she was killed for holding these beliefs, but it seems to me that the most fitting tribute we can pay to this woman is to remember her words and, in her memory, for all us to work for a society and a politics that is free from hate.

I now call on the leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Andrew R.T. Davies.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I make no pretence to have known Jo Cox, but the events last Thursday mortified us all. Pure evil visited Jo Cox and her family last week, and her constituency, when she was going about her job, which she cared passionately about, and I think she said, in her own words, it was a job that she thought was a job for which she’d been groomed for life, to achieve success for the communities that she represented and the causes that she held dear. And she certainly took those causes right to the heart of power in Parliament and Government, and worked across the political divide, and proved where politicians do work together, we actually achieve far more.

One thing we must remember is that a family today will not feel the warmth and love of a mother and also a wife, and they are the ones who have lost the most in all this, but we as a society are far poorer from losing such as individual as Jo Cox, and we should never let the flame that she lit go out, and we should stand up for the beliefs and causes that she fought for and make sure that the evil that visited this country, her constituency, and her family last week, does not triumph.

I now call on the leader of the UKIP group, Neil Hamilton.

I would like to associate myself and my party with everything that has been said here today. Like Andrew Davies, I didn’t know Jo Cox; she was clearly a very remarkable person on the threshold of what I’m sure would have been a very successful political career. The impact of her tragic death would not have achieved the huge publicity that it has but for the nature of her personality, and although I didn’t know her, I did know the last Member of Parliament to be assassinated, Ian Gow, very, very well, so I do understand, from personal experience, the effect upon those who knew her. Rachel Reeves said yesterday in the House of Commons what Andrew Davies has just reminded us of, that this is a personal tragedy as well. In as much as Batley and Spen may acquire a new Member of Parliament, but those poor children will not acquire a new mother, and that certainly should affect us all. And we should go forth, I think, in our different parties and in our different way, in the spirit in which Jo Cox lived her life and fought her politics—with compassion and respect, and, first and foremost, a respect for the whole of humankind. I think that, in her death, she will achieve far more than any of us will achieve in our lives.

And finally, Hannah Blythyn.

Diolch. Jo Cox MP—a passionate activist, and unwavering humanitarian, a driven campaigner and a committed feminist, a friend, daughter, sister, wife, mother, and proud to the MP for Batley and Spen, the Yorkshire community in which she grew up. Jo Cox was one of us, and we are all profoundly shocked, devastated and moved by Jo’s murder. But today is a time to remember the incredibly significant and valuable contribution that Jo Cox made in her all too short time with us.

I was only lucky enough to meet Jo briefly through the Labour Women’s Network, so ahead of today’s tribute, I sought guidance from those who knew Jo far, far better than me. Jo achieved so much before entering the House of Commons just over a year ago, with Oxfam, in the European Parliament, and encouraging Labour women into politics. Jo was chair of Labour Women’s Network from 2010 to 2014, part of a team of women with big ambitions to develop the organisation to support and bring through Labour women from all walks of life into the party and into public life. The focus and determination that Jo brought to LWN to drive forward and actually get things done was a focus and determination that she brought to everything that she did. A friend and colleague of Jo’s wrote in the last few days how Jo supported and empowered other women by, ‘Half holding you upright and half shoving you forward’.

The alliances that Jo built and what she achieved in her 13 months as an MP are testament not just to the tenacity and the depth of experience she brought to the issues she focused on and the causes that she championed, but also to her personality. Friends have shared how Jo was relentlessly positive and a bundle of energy—a force of nature that enjoyed life to the full. They’ve written how, in reflecting on Jo’s life, it’s not just what she did, but the how she did it: the power of common action and not simply believing in her ideals, but living them and doing something to advance them every single day. To me, Jo Cox personified everything a politician should be, and, as we celebrate Jo’s life, let us go forward with her own words shaping our deeds: we have far more in common with each other than that which divides us. Diolch. Diolch yn fawr, Jo Cox MP.

I thank you all.