London: The killer of British Labour Party’s MP Jo Cox was a ‘dedicated supporter’ of a neo-Nazi group based in the United States, reports said today.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, the man named by British media as the attacker, Thomas Mair, had a long history with white nationalism.
“According to records obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Centre Mair was a dedicated supporter of the National Alliance (NA), the once premier neo-Nazi organisation in the United States, for decades,” the legal advocacy group said on its website.
It said that Mair had spent more than $620 (Rs 41,000) on reading material from the National Alliance, a group which called for the creation of an all-white homeland and eradication of Jewish people.
Scott Mair, the brother of the shooter, said that Mair had suffered from mental illness but received treatment.
"I am struggling to believe what has happened," Scott Mair said.
Police said an investigation was underway to establish the motive for the murder.
Mair may also have had links to the "Springbok Club", an organisation which has defended the white supremacist apartheid regime in South Africa.
That group, which is "pro-free market capitalism and patriotism and anti-political correctness", has also campaigned against the EU. It has condemned Cox's killing.
Speculation has raged about the motive for the attack after a number of separate eyewitnesses said Cox's attacker shouted "Britain first" -- a longstanding far-right slogan -- during the assault.
"Britain First" is also the name of a far-right organisation which recently publicly advocated "direct action" against Muslim elected officials. The group said it condemns Cox's killing.
Mair also used a gun of antique appearance, eye witnesses said.
Cox was shot either two or three times outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall Library. She was left lying in a pool of blood and then taken by air ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary, where she died.
The attack on the 41-year-old mother of two comes a week before a crucial referendum on whether Britain should stay in or leave the European Union.
It is unclear if the killing was in any way linked to the upcoming vote.
Political friends and supporters of Cox gathered in parliament square on Thursday evening for an impromptu vigil.
Standing among tearful colleagues, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn described Cox as an "exemplary MP, a real servant of democracy in every way".
