Remain campaign supporters are rushing to blame Brexit backers for today’s horrific attack on Labour MP Jo Cox.
Just an hour after a 52-year-old man allegedly shot and stabbed Mrs. Cox, who had been campaigning for Britain to remain in the EU, many online are seeking to tar with the same brush all those behind Brexit.
There is currently no indication that the attacker was a Brexit campaigner, and reports over his shout of “Britain First” – the name of an anti-EU nationalist group – have had doubts cast upon them by Channel 5 news.
Yet in 2010, when al-Qaeda sympathiser Roshonara Choudhry stabbed Stephen Timms, the Labour MP for East Hams, many of those same voices rushed to insist that it had “nothing to do with Islam” and “Muslims can’t be blamed”.
Newspapers and websites around the world have also jumped to label the attacker a “Brexit supporter” and the victim a Remainer – despite the fact little is know about his political affiliations.
The Evening Standard described Ms. Cox as a “Remain MP” on their front page tonight. “HORRIFIC ATTACK: MP shot, stabbed by #Brexit supporter”, is the headline on one Australian site. A Belgium paper used: “Brexit: a pro-European MP wounded by gunfire in the north of England”.
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https://twitter.com/Jonny_Faulkner/status/743464251877109765
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