The spirit of non-conformity is as prevalent now in my part of west Yorkshire as it was in the time of my two immediate predecessors, Mike Wood and Elizabeth Peacock. – Jo Cox
Batley and Spen is a gathering of typically independent, no-nonsense and proud Yorkshire towns and villages. – Jo Cox
Yorkshire folk are not fools: talk about devolving power to cities and regions, while simultaneously stripping them of the resources to deliver and subjecting northern councils such as Kirklees to the harshest of cuts, is not compatible with a worthy commitment to building a northern powerhouse to drive growth and prosperity. – Jo Cox
Our communities have been deeply enhanced by immigration, be it of Irish Catholics across the constituency or of Muslims from Gujarat in India or from Pakistan, principally from Kashmir. – Jo Cox
In Afghanistan, I was talking to Afghan elders who were world-weary of a lack of sustained attention from their own government and from the international community to stop problems early. – Jo Cox
I have long argued that ISIS and Assad are not separate problems to be chosen between, but are action and reaction, cause and symptom, chicken and egg: impossible to untangle no matter how much we might like to. – Jo Cox
It is simply not credible to tackle child poverty without acknowledging the worst issue – a lack of money. – Jo Cox
While we celebrate our diversity, what surprises me time and time again as I travel around the constituency is that we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us. – Jo Cox
The government is slowly waking up to the scale of the personal tragedy of delayed autism diagnosis. – Jo Cox
I am Batley and Spen born and bred, and I could not be prouder of that. I am proud that I was made in Yorkshire, and I am proud of the things we make in Yorkshire. Britain should be proud of that, too. – Jo Cox
In my view, it is only when civilians are protected that we will defeat ISIS, and until that is at the centre of our plan, I will remain an outspoken advocate for that cause. – Jo Cox
My family didn’t really have newspapers at home or talk about politics – my family are not political. They were too busy getting on with it – working, looking after kids, trying to pay off the mortgage, all that stuff. – Jo Cox
Batley and Spen has a high proportion of people working in manufacturing, and we can boast the full range of industries, including high-skilled, precision engineering. We manufacture all sorts, from beds to biscuits and from carpets to lathes. We also have some of the best fish and chips in the country and some of the best curries in the world. – Jo Cox
Indeed, by refusing to tackle Assad’s brutality, we may actively alienate more of the Sunni population, driving them towards ISIS. – Jo Cox
It is time to give city and county regions the powers and resources they need to promote growth, and I will happily work with all of those who are genuinely committed to building an economic powerhouse in the north. – Jo Cox
Many businesses in Yorkshire want the security and stability of Britain’s continued membership of the European Union, a cause I look forward to championing passionately in this place and elsewhere. – Jo Cox
My summer jobs for three years were going to work in my dad’s factory and earn a bit of pocket money. I absolutely loved it, and I think I learnt more there than I did at Cambridge, actually, in terms of how hard work is and how tough it is finding a job, keeping a job, managing a job and family and commitments outside of work. – Jo Cox
Businesses in my constituency want help to address the skills mismatch at local level which leaves employers with staff shortages and young people without jobs. They want access to reliable sources of finance, including a network of local banks. – Jo Cox
I never really grew up being political or Labour. It was just a realisation that where you were born mattered. That how you spoke mattered… who you knew mattered. – Jo Cox
Going to Cambridge was a bit of a culture shock, I was a working class lass from Batley who hadn’t been anywhere apart from the odd holiday on the Costa Del Sol. – Jo Cox
