1. Statement by the Presiding Officer

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 1:36 pm on 21 June 2016.

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Photo of Mr Neil Hamilton Mr Neil Hamilton UKIP 1:36, 21 June 2016

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.