What It's Like to Be the MP in Jo Cox's Former Seat

When Tracy Brabin ran in the by-election to replace the late Jo Cox, the other main parties decided not to stand candidates out of respect. Brabin did not stand completely unopposed, though: The BNP, the English Democrats and other far-right candidates from across the UK – many of whom share similar philosophies to Cox's murderer – piled into the constituency and stood against her.

In that climate of hate, so soon after Cox's horrendous murder, there were obviously security concerns. Brabin said she felt a pressure not to meet constituents alone, to go doorstepping with extra security. "But I pushed away from that," she tells me in her parliamentary office. "I really believe I, more than anyone, have to show to be fearless, because if I'm surrounded by bouncers – if I'm not having surgeries any more where people can just walk in – then they've won, he's won."

A year on, Brabin is still horrified by what happened on the 16th of June, 2016. "It was really horrifying," she said. "I mean, obviously murder itself is horrifying, but the way it was done, the brutality, the target, a young mum who was just starting out her political career, shocking. And Burstell is where I'm from, so obviously it's like my village – how could that happen in my village? That violence has come to such a sleepy Yorkshire community. It's very close for all of us and it's shattering to think that man grew up in our community with such hatred in his heart."

Brabin says her by-election campaign to become the MP was as much about grieving and rebuilding the community as it was about politics. "During the by-election, when I was door knocking there was a lot of grief; the majority of people I met had a story to tell me about when they met Jo and the impact she had on their lives and what she did for them and how she always bobbed in."

The BBC documentary that aired last week, Jo Cox: Death of an MP, attempted to grapple with this confusing time. What's most striking is that, in a country where many people can not even name their MP, Cox's influence on the community, after just 13 months in the job, was enormous.

Rev Paul Knight, St. Peter's Birstall said: "I invited her to speak to a church group. She was newly elected, but she came in with such an enthusiasm and vibrancy that you really knew you could champion her." Iona Lawrence, now director of the Jo Cox foundation, said she had "this incredible vision for a world that was equal and equitable."

Despite the grief that threatened to break this West Yorkshire area, there is a drive to fight for what Cox stood for. Even after recent terror attacks in the UK, there has been a sense of uniting against those who seek to disrupt ordinary life.

"I went to a vigil in Batley Town square after the Manchester bombings, and although no one from Batley had been injured in it, it was a sense of common experience," said Brabin. "We know as a community what had happened to Manchester and how difficult the grieving is to deal with, so we wanted to show our allegiances. That determination and Yorkshire grit that he thinks he took from us but he didn't."

Of course, Brabin has just had to fight another campaign, her second in the space of a year, after Theresa May called the surprise snap election. The timbre of this month's vote felt different to the shock of the previous campaign. "Last time I was elected it felt absolutely immense and sometimes overwhelming, and every day I woke up with a sense of 'I have so much to prove.' It wasn't my own mandate. You know a lot of people who never voted Labour voted for me in the by-election because of Jo, whereas, after this election, I feel like I've almost had an apprenticeship, that our community, and mine, sees they are front and centre of everything I do."

As a Labour candidate, Brabin won nearly 9,000 votes and received 55 percent of the vote share – a feat not seen there since 1960s. It means that Cox's values – of justice and co-operation – clearly continue to be felt in the community.

@RuchoSharma