A Conservative candidate for the seat formerly held by the murdered MP Jo Cox has apologised and blamed fatigue for telling a hustings: “We’ve not yet shot anybody so that’s wonderful.”
Ann Myatt made the comments while discussing the coming together of various communities in Batley and Spen, in West Yorkshire.
“This sort of evening is absolutely first-rate because we have here people of all faiths, we have here people from different parts of the community and we’ve not yet shot anybody so that’s wonderful,” she told the meeting.
In a statement released later, she said: “I wholeheartedly apologise for my ill-judged remarks at the hustings and for any offence they caused. I said sorry at the time and would like to apologise again for my comments, which were out of character and came at the end of a tiring day.”
Video footage of the event, which was obtained by the Daily Mirror and Daily Mail, showed attendees gasp and groan in disbelief at Myatt’s comments. The Tory candidate was sitting next to Labour’s Tracy Brabin, who replaced Cox after a byelection last year and paid tribute to her friend and “inspiration” in her maiden speech in the House of Commons.
The Mirror quoted David Keeton, a Labour member who was in the audience, as saying: “My initial reaction at what she said was shock, then utter abhorrence that someone could say such a thing under any circumstances, let alone here less than a year after our wonderful MP Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right terrorist.”
Brabin, a former Coronation Street cast member, is seeking re-election on 8 June. During her maiden speech she struck a defiant tone, telling MPs: “Batley and Spen will not be defined by the one person who took from us, but by the many who give.”
Cox, a 41-year-old mother of two, was shot and stabbed by neo-Nazi Thomas Mair days before last year’s EU referendum.
