Labour MP Jo Cox has died after being shot and stabbed in the street outside her constituency advice surgery.
The mother of two was attacked by a man reportedly shouting "Britain first" at lunchtime in Birstall, West Yorkshire.
The MP’s husband Brendan said: “Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it everyday of her life with an energy, and a zest for life that would exhaust most people.
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“She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now, one that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her.
“Hate doesn’t have a creed, race or religion, it is poisonous,” he said.
“Jo would have no regrets about her life, she lived every day of it to the full.”
Temporary chief constable for West Yorkshire Dee Collins told a news conference earlier that Ms Cox had died as a result of her injuries.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the country would be “in shock at the horrific murder” of the MP, who was a “much loved colleague”.
The alleged gunman has been named locally as Tommy Mair (52) who neighbours in Birstall have described as “a loner”.
Ms Collins expressed her deepest condolences to the family and friends of Ms Cox, who had two children aged three and five.
She said: “Jo was attacked by a man who inflicted serious and sadly, ultimately fatal injuries. Subsequently there was a further attack on a 77-year-old man nearby who has sustained injuries that are non-life threatening.”
Ms Collins added: “Shortly afterwards a man was arrested nearby by local uniformed police officers. Weapons, including a firearm, have also been recovered.
“At 1.48pm Jo Cox was pronounced deceased by a doctor who was working with a paramedic crew that were attending to her serious injuries.
“A full investigation is under way to establish the motive for this attack.”
Prime Minister David Cameron said: “The death of Jo Cox is a tragedy. She was a committed and caring MP. My thoughts are with her husband Brendan and her two young children.”
Home Secretary Theresa May said it was a “dreadful event” adding that Westminster had lost one of its “brightest and most popular” MPs.
Eyewitness Clarke Rothwell, who runs a cafe near the murder scene, described the attack, telling the Press Association: “He was shouting ‘put Britain first’. He shouted it about two or three times. He said it before he shot her and after he shot her.”
He said the gunman fired three shots, the final one at her head. Britain First is the name of a far-Right group which said it was “not involved and would never encourage behaviour of this sort”.
Another witness, Hichem Ben Abdallah said the alleged attacker was “kicking her as she was lying on the floor”. He said that after a bystander intervened, the man produced a gun, stepped back and shot Ms Cox.
The 56-year-old, who was in the cafe next door to the library, told the Press Association: “There was a guy who was being very brave and another guy with a white baseball cap who he was trying to control and the man in the baseball cap suddenly pulled a gun from his bag.
“He was fighting with her and wrestling with her and then the gun went off twice.”
He added: “I came and saw her bleeding on the floor.”
Mr Abdallah said the weapon looked handmade and that the man who had been wrestling with the assailant continued to do so even after he saw the gun.
He said: “The man stepped back with the gun and fired it and then he fired a second shot. As he was firing he was looking down at the ground.
“He was kicking her and he was pulling her by her hair.”
Mair’s house was sealed off by police who were guarding the property as forensic officers worked in the garden. Neighbours said he had lived there for more than 30 years — on his own for the last two decades since the deaths of his mother and grandmother.
They did not think he had a job or drove a car and described how he would do gardening chores for local people.
One neighbour, David Pickles, said: “He’s lived there longer than me and I’ve lived here since 1975.
“I still can’t believe it. He’s the last guy I would have thought of. “He’s just quiet. He kept himself to himself.
“He lived by himself. He’s been on his own for about 20 years.
“I’ve never seen a lot of people visiting or anything like that, but he likes gardening. “He did a lot of people’s gardens round here. But he did it quietly.”
Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: “We’ve known him quite a lot of years.
“I’ve known him since I was young. He lived with his grandmother in that house, she died a few years ago.
“He was a bit of a loner. It’s a bit of a shock — he did everyone’s gardens.
“I can’t say a wrong word about him, he was so quiet. It’s come as a shock to everybody.”
Ms Cox was elected to the seat of Batley and Spen at the last general election in 2015. She was a Remain supporter in the referendum and both official campaigns have suspended their operations as a mark of respect following the attack on her.
She has two children with husband Brendan who shortly after the attack Tweeted a picture of her next to the River Thames, where they lived in a houseboat.
She graduated from Cambridge University in 1995 and worked as an adviser for former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown’s wife, Sarah, and Baroness Kinnock.
Ms Cox was a vocal advocate for the victims of the Syrian civil war and abstained in last autumn’s contentious vote on allowing British military action in Syria.
Mr Cox, a former advisor to ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, spent Wednesday campaigning for the UK to remain in the EU. He posted photographs of himself and the couple’s two young children travelling along the Thames in a dinghy during a counter-protest against a pro-Brexit flotilla of vessels.
Messages of solidarity for Ms Cox were also expressed by politicians outside of the UK, including by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan.
“The fact that Ms Cox was attacked in this vicious way in the course of carrying out her duties for her constituents is deeply shocking,” said Mr Flanagan.
“The suspension of the Remain and Leave campaigns for today is an apt recognition that today’s horrific incident was an attack, not just on Ms Cox personally, but on the practice of democratic politics.”