Britain First: the far-right group whose name was 'shouted by Jo Cox gunman'

Eyewitness Clarke Rothwell says he saw a man holding a gun and shouting “Britain first or put Britain first”

Tributes have been paid around the world to Labour MP Jo Cox, who died after being shot and stabbed.

The 41-year-old was attacked before holding a constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire on Thursday.

Among those who honoured Mrs Cox was Hillary Clinton, the US Democratic Party’s presidential hopeful, who said: “It is cruel and terrible that her life was cut short.”

Mrs Cox’s husband said the mother of two had fought for “a better world”.

Her attacker is reported to have shouted “put Britain first” at least twice. A 52-year-old man, named locally as Tommy Mair, has been arrested.

The Leader of Britain First has distanced the far-right group from the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, despite several witnesses confirming that the killer shouted “Britain First” three times during the attack in Leeds on Thursday.

In a video on the party’s website he said the media had “an axe to grind”. He added: “We hope that this person is strung up by the neck on the nearest lamppost, that’s the way we view justice.”

What we know about the group

Formed in 2011 by former members of the British National Party, Britain First has grown rapidly to become the most prominent far-right group in the country.

While it insists it is not a racist party, it campaigns on a familiar anti-immigration platform, while calling for the return of “traditional British values” and the end of “Islamisation”.

The party says on its website: “Britain First is opposed to all mass immigration, regardless of where it comes from – the colour of your skin doesn’t come into it – Britain is full up.”

Although it claims to have just 6,000 members, Britain First has managed to build an army of online fans, mainly by using social media to campaign for innocuous causes such as stopping animal cruelty, or wearing a poppy on Remembrance Day, and appealing for users to “like” its messages.

It now has more than 1.4 million “likes” on Facebook, more than any other British political party.

In a bid to garner newspaper coverage, the group has carried out mosque invasions and so-called “Christian patrols”.

A march in January targeted Dewsbury, near Jo Cox’s Batley and Spen constituency, and featured 120 Britain First members carrying crucifixes and Union Jacks through the town.

Mrs Cox wrote on Twitter at the time: “Very proud of the people of Dewsbury and Batley today – who faced down the racism and fascism of the extreme right with calm unity.”

The party has a vigilante wing, the Britain First Defence Force, and last weekend carried out its first “activist training camp” in Snowdonia, at which a dozen members were given “self defence training”.

At the scene, Clare McDonnell, BBC 5Live

I’m standing in the market square at the top of Market Street about 100 yards from the blue and white police tape lines where Jo was stabbed and shot.

She only became an MP last year, and her death at the age of 41 with a young family has drawn a huge reaction from the people she served.

The aroma of flowers is quite overpowering, people here have been leaving tributes here last night and this morning.

There’s a note that says, “RIP Jo Cox, a friend and a fantastic campaigner. A bright, shining star has gone out tonight”.

Tributes have also come in from around the world, reflecting the international profile she had before she became an MP in Westminster.

Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, who together with Mrs Cox set up the All Party Parliamentary Working Group on Syria, described her as a “force of nature”.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said she had been a “five foot bundle of Yorkshire grit and determination absolutely committed to helping other people”.

Mrs Cox is the first sitting MP to be killed since 1990, when Ian Gow was the last in a string of politicians to die at the hands of Northern Irish terror groups.