Kim Leadbeater urges country to find 'common ground' 10 years after Jo Cox murder
Julie Lockwood, 63, has picked up her grand-daughter from school, and is waiting for a bus opposite the library to take them home to Batley.She says: "It was brutal. I think she wanted people to come together."She wanted mixed races, communities, all to pull together."I feel like the communities have divided more than anything. I don't feel like they've pulled together."Also waiting for a bus in the town centre is Tom Sothard, 62, who was away on holiday when he heard the news but remembers being "shocked" and described it as a "tragic thing".He believes the community is still as "strong as it has ever been. It's a nice area, I think it always will be".That she is remembered for wanting to "bring communities together" has its roots in her maiden speech in the House of Commons.She used the phrase "we have far more in common than that which divides us".During our interview, Kim reflects on those words and says there are "amazing positive" things happening - nowhere more than in Yorkshire - and those voices "need to be the loudest".She says: "Because of some of the challenges that we face, unfortunately there are people who are trying to sow division."But we've got to work together to address those challenges rather than try and pit people against each other and create a sense of division."We've got to make sure that the voices of positivity and perseverance and resilience are the ones that are amplified and not the voices of people who don't show who we actually are as a country."In the weeks and months following the murder, politicians from across the spectrum sat in our TV and radio studios saying political discourse had to improve.They told us it was too "toxic" and "divisive" in the wake of the EU referendum.And 10 years after her sister's murder, Kim finds it "quite depressing" that things have not changed and political discourse remains divided. "The fact that a young woman, a mum of two small children, who'd stood up to be a public servant, to be our MP for Batley & Spen, could be murdered in the street, people said, 'hang on a minute, this isn't what our society should look like, this isn't the atmosphere that our politics should be conducted in'. "Sadly that didn't last very long and if anything over the last 10 years I think things probably are worse and there's lots of different reasons for that."Kim wishes the media focus was not on the "gladiatorial pit" of Prime Minister's Questions.She would like more focus on the cross-party work MPs do like loneliness, community building or sport.She says there are many issues most politicians can find "common ground" on, but the public do not see that work.Kim also thinks the media have a role to play in highlighting that and admits she gets "upset when I see the media covering a story and they will inevitably put two people on who have got totally polarised positions because it makes good telly".In her opinion most people are "somewhere in the middle but we're led to believe that you have to pick a side".Kim says Jo would believe the country's political discourse could improve and that "she would absolutely be full of hope for the future".
