LONDON, June 22 : The widower of MP Jo Cox has said he believes the mother of his two children was killed because of her 'very strong' political views.
Brendan Cox said his 41-year-old wife 'would want to stand up for those views as in death as much as she did in life'.
Speaking publicly for the first time since his wife's death last Thursday, he added that she had concerns about the culture of politics around the world.
Mrs Cox, MP for Bately and Spen, was stabbed and shot as she arrived for a surgery in her constituency of Birstall, near Leeds.
Had she lived, she would have been out on the streets campaigning for a Remain vote in the EU referendum, Mr Cox said.
But she was 'worried about the tone of the debate' amid concerns it was 'whipping up fears and whipping up hatred potentially'.
Asked whether he was concerned about people using her death in public debate, Mr Cox told the BBC: 'She was a politician and she had very strong political views and I believe she was killed because of those views.
'I think she died because of them, and she would want to stand up for those in death as much as she did in life.' 
He added: 'I think she was very worried that the language was coarsening, that people were being driven to take more extreme positions, that people didn't work with each other as individuals and on issues, it was all much too tribal and unthinking.
'And she was particularly worried about the direction of, not just in the UK but globally, the direction of politics at the moment, particularly around creating division and playing on people's worst fears rather than their best instincts. So we talked about that a lot and it was something that worried her.'     ?THE MAIL