Jo Cox memorial fund tops £1 million

A memorial fund set up for Labour MP Jo Cox has raised £1 million in three days.

Friends of Mrs Cox and her husband Brendan set up the Go Fund Me page in "celebration and memory" of the popular MP, who died after being shot and stabbed in her Batley and Spen constituency on Thursday.

It passed the £1 million mark shortly before 8.30pm on Monday after more than 30,500 people made donations that will be divided between three charities.

The fund was pushed past the seven-figure mark by a £6,000 donation from a "David Newton" which joined offerings small and large that have poured in over the last three days.

Mrs Cox's friend Tim Dixon, one of those who launched the fund, said: "The scale and speed of the public response to this fund has been overwhelming and deeply gratifying to Jo's family.

"It shows how powerfully Jo's story has moved so many. Jo would be so proud."

The three charities that will benefit from the money are:

:: The White Helmets - unarmed and neutral volunteer search and rescue workers in Syria who have saved more than 51,000 lives from under the rubble of the conflict;

:: HOPE not hate - which seeks to challenge and defeat the politics of hate and extremism in communities across Britain;

:: The Royal Voluntary Service - to support volunteers helping to combat loneliness in Mrs Cox's constituency.