Thousands flock to Great Get Together events celebrating life of Jo Cox

On a hot summer day, we can usually be relied upon to moan about the weather. Yet as splashes of sunshine turned into a minor heatwave yesterday, there were few grumbles from the thousands, perhaps even millions, of people who turned out to celebrate togetherness in memory of the late MP Jo Cox.

People gathered in parks for fun days and picnics, shared a drink and a chat on benches outside pubs, set up stalls for parties in their street or retreated inside for tea parties in libraries and churches, mosques and synagogues for The Great Get Together.

Cox’s family had hoped to stage a positive event to highlight her life, rather than the circumstances of her murder a year ago last Friday, around the theme “More in Common”.

Her husband, Brendan, described his amazement at people’s response. “We were originally thinking of just bringing some people together. We didn’t think it would have anything like the scale and traction it’s had. We’ve been awed by it.

“We’ve had well over 100,000 events with millions of people taking part in the weekend. And we got the weather for it, which is a good thing to be able to say.”

He joined her parents, Gordon and Jean Leadbeater, and her sister, Kim Leadbeater, in Heckmondwike in West Yorkshire, at one of tens of thousands of events around the country organised as part of The Great Get Together.

Hundreds of people gathered in the green at the centre of the town, which is at the heart of the Batley & Spen constituency she represented, to enjoy traditional entertainments from a bouncy castle to stalls, as well as live music.

Elsewhere, MPs and politicians joined events in their communities. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, joined a tea party at Glasgow Women’s Library for tea and selfies, while Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, was at Sandwell Valley Country Park.

Kemi Badenoch, the new Conservative MP for Saffron Walden, tweeted from an event in her town. “Tory, Lib Dem, Labour, UKIP and R4U candidates showing we have #MoreInCommon at the common! Humbled to celebrate #JoCox at #GreatGetTogether”.

Martha Lane Fox, the dotcom entrepreneur, joined the Swedish ambassador for a street picnic in Marylebone, posting pictures of the occasion online. “Our #greatgettogether about to kick off – cinnamon buns courtesy of the Swedish ambassador who lives nearby #MoreInCommon” she tweeted. In Dorking, residents decorated trees with hearts at a church, while a couple in Winchester made 30 lemon cupcakes and hand-delivered them to neighbours. Many other places are holding events today. At Borough Market, organisers hope to stage “the biggest street party the area’s ever seen”, with music, comedy, a maypole and a dog show, to help renew community ties after the London Bridge attacks.

Brendan Cox said his wife “would have loved” The Great Get Together, but that the celebration was “tapping into something more important” .

“Politics at the moment is so divisive,” he said. “We spend so much time talking about the areas we disagree with each other on, finding a moment like this when we get together with neighbours and have a good time in parks and streets up and down the country, is exactly what we need. If people feel closer to their communities, that’s exactly how Jo would want to be remembered.”