Children of murdered MP Jo Cox 'excited' their widow dad is remarrying

Widower of murdered MP Jo Cox reveals how he asked their children for permission before proposing to violence against women campaigner – seven years after his wife’s killing

• Brendan Cox, 44, met domestic abuse campaigner Anna Ryder two years ago

Jo Cox’s widow Brendan today revealed their children were ‘excited’ when he broke the news he was going to propose seven years after their mother’s murder, with his youngsters proudly telling him: ‘You’re never going to do any better’. 

Brendan Cox, whose wife Jo – a Labour MP – was viciously shot and stabbed to death by a far-Right extremist while she met constituents in 2016, is tying the knot with Anna Ryder, director of the Killed Women’s network that aids bereaved families of women and girls.

The couple are believed to have met two years ago through a mutual friend and are reportedly planning a woodland ceremony in Herefordshire, which Brendan said they are ‘both very much looking forward to celebrating with our families’. 

A source last night told The Sun newspaper: ‘They are very happy together. It’s lovely news for the family. Brendan’s a fantastic dad and his focus has been very much on the children. It was with their en­couragement that Brendan and Anna wanted to take this step. They are very excited for the wedding.’ 

And taking to ITV’s This Morning programme today, father-of-two Brendan, 44, said his children Cuillin, 12, and Lejla, 10, were delighted at the news as he admitted he ‘never thought’ he would again find love after Jo’s horrific killing. 

Brendan Cox, 44, was introduced to Anna Ryder, 37, through a mutual friend two years ago. 

Jo was shot and stabbed by extremist Thomas Mair as she attended her Batley and Spen constituency surgery in Birstall in 2016

Taking to ITV’s This Morning programme today, father-of-two Brendan said his children Cuillin, 12, and Lejla, 10, were delighted at the new he was marrying Anna Ryder

Congratulating him on his engagement to Ms Ryder, This Morning host Lorraine Kelly added: ‘Jo wouldn’t have wanted you to be on your own.’

Brendan said: ‘No, actually before Jo died, a friend of ours tragically lost their husband and we talked about it at the time about what would we do if one of us ever died. And we were both of the view that – I remember Jo saying at the time – we should get married next week.

READ MORE: Husband of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox finds love again, seven years after his wife’s tragic death: Brendan Cox is marrying violence against women campaigner after pair ‘met through a mutual friend’

‘I always knew that she would want that. But I never thought it would happen because when you lose someone like Jo you never think you’ll find somebody with the energy and the love and the enthusiasm and the excitement that Jo had. I’m incredibly lucky that I have.’

Speaking of his children, he added: ‘They’re on really good form. In fact before I asked Anna to marry me, I said “I’m thinking about asking Anna to marry me what do you think?”.

‘I think their response was “you’re never going to do any better than Anna” which I think was supposed to be a nice thing and a compliment. But they’re very excited about it.’

Jo was shot and stabbed by extremist Thomas Mair as she attended her Batley and Spen constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire during the referendum on EU membership in June 2016. White supremacist Mair was jailed for life for murdering her later that year.

Since her tragic death, Brendan founded the Together Coalition and has worked to support survivors of terror attacks while also raising the couple’s children, Cuillin and Lejla. 

Brendan and Anna (pictured on holiday) are reportedly planning a woodland ceremony in Herefordshire.

Anna Ryder (pictured) met Brendan through her work as the director of of Killed Women, a network which works to support the bereaved families of victims of domestic violence

Labour MP Jo was fatally shot and stabbed by a far right extremist as she attended her constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire, in June 2016

Jo Cox’s killer Thomas Mair had researched ‘matricide’ online and may have been on his way to kill his mother when police arrested him

The Jo Cox Foundation was also set up in his wife’s memory, which works to spread the MP’s message of unity from her maiden speech in Parliament where she said: ‘We have more in common than that which divides us’.

READ MORE: Loner who murdered Jo Cox MP had researched killing his mother on the internet and may have been on his way to do so when police pounced on him

Jo and Brendan married in 2009 and their children were aged just five and three at the time of her death.

Brendan and Anna’s families are said to be supportive of their marriage, a source told The Sun last night.

Jo Cox was brutally murdered by loner Mair, while she was at a local surgery for her constituents. 

Mair, 53, spent hours looking up information on the Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organisations before brutally attacking the Labour MP in her hometown of Batley, West Yorkshire.

He lay in wait outside Birstall Library for the mother-of-two to arrive for a constituency surgery before repeatedly stabbing her with a 7in dagger and firing a .22 rimfire rifle.

He viciously attacked the mother of two, shooting her three times through the hands as she tried to protect her head, after being stabbed in the heart, lungs, stomach and liver.  

Mrs Cox heroically told her aides to stay away as she was been brutally attacked by Mair

Mair used this weapon to shot Ms Cox during his vicious attack against the 41-year-old on June 16, 2016

Mair viciously attacked the mother of two, shooting her three times through the hands as she tried to protect her head, after being stabbed in the heart, lungs, stomach and liver. Pictured is the knife recovered by police used during the attack

Heroically, Mrs Cox warned her two aides to stay back and told them ‘let him hurt me, don’t let him hurt you’ as Mair carried out his attack.

The Neo Nazi was arrested about 30 minutes after he killed Mrs Cox and told police he was a ‘political activist’.  

Mair was found with a leaflet in his bag from the pro-EU Britain Stronger in Europe campaign, which the Labour MP supported. 

He was also heard shouting: ‘This is for Britain, Britain will always come first.’ While another witness said the killer yelled: ‘We’re British independence’ and ‘Keep Britain independent’. 

During his trial. a jury later heard the savage had researched Tory Ian Gow – the last sitting MP murdered when he was killed by the IRA in 1990 – and Conservative Yorkshire MP William Hague, who also backed Remain, before carrying out his attack.

As well as carry out research on a ‘far-right’ internet publication, Mair also searched to see if his .22 calibre rifle was ‘deadly enough to kill with one shot to a human’s head’.

And he even looked up the death penalty in Japan, further Nazi material and the act of killing one’s mother 

The court heard that on the night before he killed Ms Cox, he researched coffins, the Waffen SS and lying in state. 

Mair was handed a whole-life sentence during a hearing at London’s Old Bailey, becoming one of 70 prisoners serving such a tariff in the UK, joining the likes of Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady, Dale Cregan and Michael Adebolajo.

Jo Cox’s sister Kim Leadbeater and her mother and father Jean Leadbeater and Gordon Leadbeater embrace outside the Old Bailey courthouse after the conviction and sentencing of Thomas Mair for their daughter’s murder

Mair remained emotionless as he was jailed for life for the murder of Jo Cox 

Speaking after his wife’s killer was convicted, Mr Cox said: ‘We feel nothing but pity for him that his life was so devoid of love and filled with hatred, his only way of finding meaning was to attack a woman who represented all that was good about the country in an act of supreme cowardice.’ 

Mrs Cox’s sister Kim said of her family: ‘Whilst we can’t change what’s happened, we can try and chose how we respond – I for one will not be beaten. It’s the last thing my sister would have wanted. As a family we will respond with strength, love and positivity.’

The jury took just 90 minutes to return the verdict. The trial judge Mr Justice Wilkie refused Mair’s request to make a statement in court after the jury had spoken.

The judge told Mair that Mrs Cox was the ‘true patriot’ and not him. Mair’s murderous attack on the MP was ‘brutal and ruthless’, the judge said.

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