Brendan Cox calls for an end to the ‘rise of hatred’ in alternative Christmas message

Mr Cox pays tribute to his wife and adds “fascism, xenophobia, extremism and terrorism” has divided the world

Brendan Cox, the husband of murdered MP Jo Cox, called for an end to the “rise of hatred” in this year’s alternative Christmas message.

Paying tribute to his wife he said “fascism, xenophobia, extremism and terrorism” had divided the world.

He added that 2016 had been a “wake up call”, before calling for unity in 2017.

“Jo loved Christmas, the games, the traditions, the coming together of friends and family and above all the excitement of our kids,” Mr Cox said in the message, broadcast on Channel 4.

“This year we’ll try to remember how lucky we were to have Jo in our lives for so long – and not how unlucky we were to have her taken from us.

“2016 has been an awful year for our family, and it’s been a divisive one for the wider world."

Ms Cox, a mother of two, was shot and stabbed to death by neo-Nazi Thomas Mair in her Batley and Spen constituency. Mair, an unemployed gardener, was given a life-sentence for the crime in November.

Channel 4 has been broadcasting an alternative Christmas Day message since 1993.

In previous years Edward Snowden and the parents of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence have delivered the speech.