Meeting of the Parliament 16 June 2026 [Draft]
I thank Jenny Young for securing the debate.
I remember hearing the news about Jo’s death as I was driving home from work. At that point, I was not involved in politics. It seemed an unspeakably shocking thing to have happened here, in a democratic country. She was killed while doing her job, meeting constituents who needed her help on the streets of the community that she represented. Jo’s murder shocked the Labour family and the nation. I never met Jo, but her legacy and the determination of her friends and colleagues to honour her memory helped to propel me here today.
Jo was a passionate feminist who worked tirelessly to maximise women’s voices in politics and public life. As Jenny Young mentioned, she was elected chair of the Labour Women’s Network, leading the organisation from 2011 until she became an MP in 2015. Following her death, the Jo Cox women in leadership programme was established to continue that work by investing in a generation of Labour women to ensure that they had the skills, the confidence and the network to become leaders and to support others in doing the same. In 2018, I was fortunate to become part of cohort 2 of the programme.
The programme’s influence extends far beyond elected office. Jo Cox graduates are encouraged not only to seek leadership roles themselves but to support and mentor other women, which reflects Jo’s belief in collective leadership and opening doors for others. The programme gave me practical skills and helped me to think about what kind of feminist I wanted to be. Most importantly, it gave me a group of friends who were determined to hold me up and push me onwards. Nineteen graduates have gone on to become MPs, and two graduates are now MSPs: Carol Mochan and me. Others have taken up leadership roles in trade unions, charities, public services and community organisations.
However, the programme’s greatest achievement is not the positions that its graduates hold but the community that it has created: an army of feminists working for equality, supporting one another to succeed and never knowing our place. As graduates, we carry around in our heads the voice of the legendary Nan Sloane, the Labour Women’s Network’s training lead:
“Get in the room, take up the space, take politics seriously and never apologise for yourself.”
I promise Nan that I am trying.
We are making progress, and this is a legacy that we should all be proud of. However, sadly, a decade after Jo’s death, we continue to live in a world that often feels angrier, more divided and more polarised. It is worth stating that that is why remembering Jo really matters.
As I said, I never met Jo, but I believe that the best way to honour her memory is to stand against hatred, to reject those who seek to divide us and to do the hard work of always trying to find what we have in common. At times, in this place, that may feel hard, but it is a legacy worth carrying forward.