Dying MP Jo Cox tried to ‘protect colleagues during attack’

Jo Cox MP tried to save colleagues as she was being shot and stabbed by a man shouting ‘’Britain first’, a court heard.

The 41-year-old told Fazila Aswat and Sandra Major to ‘let him hurt me, don’t let him hurt you’ during the attack in Birstall, West Yorkshire, on June 16.

The Labour politician’s colleagues had tried to fight off 53-year-old Thomas Mair with their handbags, the Old Bailey jury was told.

‘He started to walk away, and then when Jo shouted out, he came back,’ senior case worker Ms Major said.

‘He shot her twice more and started stabbing her again.
‘She was on the floor. She didn’t get up again.’

Jo Cox (1974-2016), British Labour Party politician. Jo Cox (1974-2016) died after she was shot and stabbed in a "horrific" assault in her constituency. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Thursday June 16, 2016. See PA story POLICE 
Ms Aswat said she told the MP to run away but Mrs Cox replied: ‘Fazila, I can’t run, I’m hurt.’

Mair, who was arrested close to the scene, is currently on trial for the murder of Mrs Cox, which happened shortly before the EU referendum.
The court heard he was armed with a sawn-off .22 rifle and a knife, which were both being carried in a holdall.

He also allegedly researched far-right propaganda prior to the murder.
Ms Aswat told jurors how she pulled up in a silver Vauxhall Astra with mother-of-two Mrs Cox and another colleague outside the library in Birtsall where she was due to hold a surgery.

‘So I got out of the car. I was still on the roadside. Jo walked over to the side of the pavement and my colleague walked a few steps closer up,’ Ms Aswat added.
‘In that instant our lives changed forever.

‘The next thing I saw was Jo on the floor and there is a man stood over her with a knife and I think that’s when I knew it was completely wrong.’

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