Martin Schulz has blamed the murder of British MP Jo Cox on the ‘Brexit’ referendum’s “nasty” leave campaign.
Attacking Britain’s referendum debate, the European Parliament president said of the campaign to leave the European Union, “Who would have anticipated precisely what came next?
“That the campaign would get so nasty that a Member of the UK Parliament, Jo Cox, would be brutally murdered, in broad daylight, for her political convictions?”
Blasting the arch-federalist for “trivialising” the MP’s death, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg contended Mr Schultz’ comments were “self-righteous” and “wrong”.
“It’s just nasty to say things like that and to think his self-righteous view of the world means that dreadful murders wouldn’t happen – he’s just wrong.
‘It’s nothing to do with people’s politics, it’s much more complex than that and it’s a trivialising and nasty thing to say,” he told MailOnline.
MPs said the reality on the ground in Britain at the time the Batley and Spen MP was murdered was completely different to the picture being painted by Mr Schultz.
Both the Leave and Remain sides of the debate suspended their events and campaigning in a display of unity, and MPs themselves declared a separation between the circumstances of Ms Cox’s murder and the referendum campaign.
Tory MP Peter Bone said that “there doesn’t seem to be any link between” the referendum and the MP’s death, and described the German socialist’s assertion as “regrettable”.
He said: “It’s a very strange thing to say – I’m surprised anyone would say it. Unfortunately in today’s society we’re under threat from all sorts of people, I had to call police to my surgery this morning.”
As Mr Schultz made his comments at the London School of Economics (LSE) Barack Obama yesterday met with Ms Cox’ husband and children at the White House to express his condolences and discuss “extremism”.
Following his wife’s death, Brendan Cox asked that mourners’ donations go to Soros-backed, pro-mass migration charity Hope Not Hate and the White Helmets, an aid group who claim to be neutral but have courted controversy for their activities in ISIS and jihadist-controlled areas of Syria.
The organisation has been criticised for the many videos in which they can be seen assisting and facilitating ISIS and Al Qaeda in their assaults and executions.
Two days after the murder of Jo Cox, on June 18 a British man tried to assassinate populist US presidential candidate Donald Trump on the campaign trail. Barack Obama has yet to comment on the incident.