Tearful British MPs paid glowing tributes to their slain colleague Jo Cox in the House of Commons today at a special session to honour the "passionate and progressive" Labour politician who was murdered by a far-right activist.
41-year-old Cox had bled to death in hospital after she was brutally shot and stabbed while holding her regular meeting with constituents of Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire last Thursday.
The Speaker of the House of Commons led the tributes to the "caring, eloquent, principled and wise" politician and mother-of-two.
"An attack like this strikes not only at an individual, but at our freedom. That is why we assemble here, both to honour Jo and to redouble our dedication to democracy," Speaker Jon Bercow said soon after sombre and tearful MPs filed into the Commons this afternoon.
Prime Minister David Cameron described Cox as an "extraordinary colleague and friend", who was a humanitarian "to her core" who brought out "the best" in people.
He said, "She was a voice of compassion, whose boundless energy lit up the lives of all who knew her and saved the lives of many she never met. We pay tribute to a loving, determined, passionate and progressive politician, who epitomised the best of humanity and proved so often the power of politics to make the world a better place".
In a unique gesture of cross-party solidarity, Cameron had given up his right to speak first to allow Opposition Labour's Jeremy Corbyn to lead the official motion on the recall of Parliament.
Corbyn said the UK had been "united in grief" over the "horrific act".
"We have lost one of our own and society as a whole has lost one of our very best...The horrific act that took her from us was an attack on democracy and our whole country has been shocked and saddened by it," he said.
Parliament had been in recess to allow MPs to concentrate on campaigning in the final days running up to the European Union (EU) referendum on Thursday.
However, the rare decision to recall MPs was taken to allow colleagues to pay their tributes to Cox, who's seat in the House of Commons today had a single white rose.
All members of the Commons across party lines also wore white roses in their lapels in memory of Cox.
Her husband Brendan and family members watched from the gallery as the packed chamber praised the achievements of Cox who would have celebrated her 42nd birthday on Wednesday. A simultaneous special session was also held in the House of Lords.
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Afterwards, MPs and peers walked together in a procession to St Margaret's Church, opposite the British Parliament, for a memorial service.
A memorial fund to raise money for charities the former charity worker and feminist activist supported had reached over 800,000 pounds today.
It emerged over the weekend, that the slain MP was working on a report against the rise of far-right groups in her northern England constituency before her killing.
Cox, who was killed outside her constituency office in Birstall village, was going to warn of an increase in anti-Muslim attacks - particularly against women - it emerged.
"She met us to talk about how people could report attacks; particularly women in her constituency," said Fiyaz Mughal, the founder and director of anti-Islamophobia group Tell Mama.
"The majority (of incidents) at street level were (on) women and she was going to raise that (in Parliament)," he said.
The revelation came as the man charged with her murder, Thomas alias Tommy Mair, appeared at Old Bailey court via video link today.
Mair, who has been described as a far-right loner from Birstall, is charged with murder, grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon.
There was no application for bail and the 52-year-old was remanded in custody to appear before Justice Saunders on Thursday.
Cox is the first sitting British MP to be killed since Conservative Ian Gow was blown up by an Irish Republican Army (IRA) car bomb in 1990.
