‘The biggest decision of my life’: Why Kim Leadbeater entered politics after sister Jo Cox’s death
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Kim Leadbeater, the MP for Batley and Spen, tells Lewis Goodall why she entered politics after her sister was killed.
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Read time: 3 minutes
In brief…
- Batley and Spen MP Kim Leadbeater speaks to Lewis Goodall about her sister Jo Cox’s death and how it sparked the beginning of her political career.
- Leadbeater says her sister had always encouraged her to enter politics, and now she knows it was the “right thing to do”.
- She explains the challenges of being an MP and what it is like
'My sister Jo Cox and I were raised to see good in everyone'
What’s the story?
Kim Leadbeater never planned on becoming a politician.
But when her sister Jo Cox, then the MP for Batley and Spen, was murdered by a far right extremist in 2016, everything changed.
She tells The News Agents: “Since my sister was killed, I have just put one foot in front of the other and thought about getting through every day.”
Leadbeater has managed far more than that.
Five years after her sister’s death, Leadbeater ran as the Labour candidate in the same constituency in a 2021 by-election.
She beat her Conservative Party opponent by 323 votes. She also beat political veteran George Galloway, who came third.
“It was pretty toxic. It was the worst of politics in some respects, but if anything, that made me even clearer that [running] was the right thing to do,’ she says.
Why did Leadbeater become an MP?
Leadbeater says that since Cox’s death, she’s thought about trying to make a difference in whatever way she can.
“Jo and I were brought up to be optimistic. We were brought up to be positive. We were brought up to try and find the good in everything and in every one. But also when something so horrific happens, and I still can't believe that Jo was killed in the way that she was, what choice have you got?
'You can either shut up shop and say, 'I'm done', close your curtains, lock your door. Or you can think, well, I'm going to try and make a difference."
Initially Leadbeater made a difference through charity via the Joe Cox Foundation and through local community work.
Then she thought about what her sister had told her when she was still alive.
“My sister Jo always used to say politics needs good people, and it needs good people to step forward and to try and make a difference. And if we don't get that, then what do we get?”
That didn’t mean stepping into the political arena came easily.
“This wasn’t the career that I wanted… It was the biggest decision of my life to put myself forward,” she says.
Leadbeater has a desire to bring about positive change for her local community and the rest of the country.
“We need better political education. We need people to understand what MPs do, what councils do, where those powers lie, how we can actually be a force for good and how we can help people”
What is it like to be an MP?
Being an elected official is no small feat and comes with a host of challenges.
Leadbeater explains: “You are seen differently. You are perceived differently. But I'm still the same person that I was.
“Politics is just a crazy world. It's mad. There's so much good about it, and it's such a privileged job to be an MP. it is also a bit bonkers in many ways.”
Leadbeater explains one major challenge is that you're “expected to know everything about everything, and no person can do that”.
She adds: “Whether that's the really big international issues that the world faces at the moment, whether it's war in the Middle East, whether it's Ukraine, whether it's any of those big issues.
“Then you also, in the next breath, find yourself thinking about people's wheelie bins and potholes and giving a little assembly to a primary school. So doing all those things”
While it is difficult, Leadbeater says there are “bits of enjoyment within it”.
But she admits: “ I do find it hard, I find it stressful, and I think that's probably partly because of my personality because I'm quite an all or nothing person.”
One area where Leadbeater is giving her all is her assisted dying bill.
To find out more about the bill, click here.
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