Jo Cox: Flowers and tributes left outside Batley polling station as voters make way to the polls

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Flowers and tributes have been left outside a polling station in Batley in memory of Jo Cox.

Cox, who was the MP for Batley and Spen, died exactly a week ago after she was shot and stabbed in the street outside her constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire.

As residents make their way inside Batley town hall to cast their vote in the EU referendum, they were pictured walking past a long line of flowers, teddy bears, notes and pictures of Mrs Cox in memory of her.

However, when pictures of the tributes were published on Twitter by the Press Association, several users criticised the memorial by suggesting it was a “political move” as Mrs Cox had been a vocal supporter of the Remain campaign.

On Wednesday, Mrs Cox’s widower Brendan and their two children marked what would have been her 42nd birthday at a memorial event in Trafalgar Square. Further events to celebrate the MPs life were held around the UK and around the world in Beirut, Brussels, Melbourne, Nairobi, New York and Washington DC.

The education campaigner, Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban aged 15 in 2012 followed Mr Cox in by paying tribute to Cox at the memorial, saying: “She proved that she was a giant when she stood up to declare that we have more in common than that which divides us. For her, the idea was much more than just a line in a speech, it was a sacred principle that powered her life and her work.”

Earlier this week, parliament was recalled as MPs paid tribute to Mrs Cox. A fundraising page for charities close to Mrs Cox’s heart has so far amassed over £1.3million in her memory.