British conservative politician, citing ‘hate and xenophobia,’ bolts Leave campaign

A senior Conservative Party politician announced Monday that she was switching sides in the debate over whether to leave the European Union, saying the Leave campaign’s “hate and xenophobia” had forced her to vote Remain.

Both sides temporarily suspended campaigning after Labor MP Jo Cox was attacked and killed on Thursday. Cox had been campaigning for Britain to remain in the EU and had spoken up for the rights of refugees. Prosecutors said Thomas Mair, the man accused of her murder, was heard saying: “Britain first. Keep Britain independent. Britain always comes first. This is for Britain,” as he shot and stabbed the lawmaker.

As battle buses for the two camps hit the road again for the first time since Cox’s death, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi said she could no longer align herself with the pro-”Brexit” campaign.

Warsi, a former co-chair of the Conservative Party, has said that she has long been skeptical of the EU, and had been making a case for Britain to leave the union before the Leave campaign had been established. But she found herself alienated by the campaign’s rhetoric.

“Are we prepared to tell lies, to spread hate and xenophobia just to win a campaign?” Warsi, who was the first Muslim to sit in the cabinet, told London’s Times newspaper. “For me that’s a step too far.” She cited a widely criticized poster unveiled by UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage. The poster shows a long line of refugees crossing Europe next to the words: “Breaking Point. The EU has failed us all.”

The political fallout from last week’s events were still reverberating around the country on Monday and the effect it could have on voters Thursday was largely unknown.

Some new polls showed that the Remain camp had regained a few points in the wake of the politician’s killing, but the two sides still appear to be neck and neck.

“We don’t know at the end of the day whether this is going to make any difference to the result,” said John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde. “It’s certainly created a hiatus in the campaign. You can argue it different ways. It gave the Remain side a chance to regather its force in the wake of a bit of a panic. Or they missed out on two days of campaigning with the risk of being behind.”

In parliament on Monday, lawmakers packed the House of Commons to pay tribute to their slain colleague.

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A red-and-white rose was placed on the bench where Cox usually sat and heartfelt, tearful eulogies were given for the mother of two as her family watched from the viewing gallery.

Prime Minister David Cameron described Cox as “extraordinary” and a humanitarian “to her core.”

“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,” he said.

Labor MP Jeremy Corbyn called for a “kinder and gentler politics” and said that everyone in the chamber, regardless of their political affiliation, had a responsibility “not to whip up hatred or sow division…. We can come together to change our politics to tolerate a little more and condemn a little less,” he said.

The comments struck a chord in a country that has been forced to face some uncomfortable truths about the circumstances leading up to the attack.

Both sides of the debate on whether to leave the EU – a debate that has raised issues of national sovereignty and Britain’s ability to control its own immigration policy – have been accused of running a bitter, vitriolic campaign, the likes of which Britain has not seen before. Leave and Remain supporters were openly calling each other liars.

Cox’s friend of 20 years, Labor MP Stephen Kinnock, said she had been “assassinated” because of what she stood for. He called for “hope not fear, respect not hate, unity not division,” and also lambasted the UKIP poster for demonizing people fleeing terror and persecution.

“Jo understood that rhetoric has consequences. When insecurity, fear and anger are used to light a fuse, then an explosion is inevitable,” he said.

The UKIP leader fought back at his critics, accusing those in favor of staying in the EU of trying to use Cox’s death for political advantage.“The Remain camp are using these awful circumstances to try to say that the motives of one deranged dangerous individual were similar to half the country, perhaps more, who believe we should leave the EU,” he said.

Curtice said he was unsurprised that despite the calls for calm, the debate suddenly turned bitter again. “There are careers at stake, there are beliefs at stake,” he said. “It’s not as though the Remain side stood apart and said, ‘Well, Nigel [Farage] was a bit naughty but we won’t go on about it.’

“Don’t be surprised when the Remain side get the big guns out and the Leave side respond with equal ferocity,” he added.

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