Jo Cox shooting suspect ‘had links to neo-Nazi groups’, extremism watchdog claims
The man suspected of shooting Labour MP Jo Cox had ties to far-right extremist groups, a US-based extremism monitoring group has claimed.
Ms Cox, the MP for Member of Parliament for Batley and Spen, tragically died yesterday after being shot outside a library in her constituency where she was holding an advice session.
Some eyewitnesses told local media that the attacker shouted the phrase ‘Put Britain first’, though there are conflicting accounts.
A 52-year-old man, named locally as Thomas Mair, has been arrested in connection with the death.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors far-right extremist groups across the US, has released records allegedly showing that Mair had ties to the National Alliance (NA) – a US-based neo-Nazi organisation.
The SPLC released invoices showing that a person identified as Thomas Mair of Batley sent $620 to the NA’s printing imprint, National Vanguard Books.
He had bought guidebooks on explosives on munitions, as well as Ich Kampfe, an illustrated handbook issued to members of the Nazi party in 1942.
The SPLC also reports a subscription to the NA’s periodicals. The NA supported the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people.
According to the Telegraph, Mair was also listed as a former subscriber of South African pro-apartheid magazine S. A. Patriot. The group says that Mair had not been subscribed for some years.
Comments have been disabled for legal reasons.
