Kim Leadbeater on running for her sister Jo Cox’s seat: ‘I know this is what she would want me to be doing’

Five years after Jo Cox MP was murdered in her constituency, her sister is standing for Labour in a crucial byelection there. She explains why she's ready to take on Cox's political legacy

It was the most shocking day in British politics this century. On 16 June 2016, a week before the Brexit vote, brooding tensions came to a climax with one horrific act of violence: the murder of Jo Cox. It was only 13 months since she had been elected to parliament as Labour's MP for Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire. Cox had been a symbol of hope in politics: young, idealistic, popular, a doer who wanted to make a difference. Then she was fatally shot and stabbed outside a library in Birstall, a small market town in her constituency. Her killer, Thomas Mair, a local resident and far-right extremist, shouted Britain first" as he attacked her.

Today, her sister Kim Leadbeater says she has blocked out much of what happened. I know I haven't really dealt with the day," she says. Maybe I never will. Maybe I'll never need to." Leadbeater, a fun-loving extrovert, is virtually whispering. What's the point? The only person who'll suffer is me."