THE shocking death of Jo Cox MP has shifted the mood of the debate about the European Referendum.

Our prayers and thoughts go out to her family and her constituents in Batley and Spen.

Her killing has made all of us pause and ask what sort of nation we want to be, for this campaign, which has too often been marked by exaggeration and insult, has opened up divisions between us that need to be healed whatever the outcome.

Political commentators usually say that elections are won and lost on the economy.

Depressingly it seems that in the end most of us vote according to what we think will be best for our wallet.

But this vote has always felt a bit different. Perhaps that is why emotions have been running so high.

This referendum seems to be about our identity as a nation, and we are voting on instinct.

But let us try to look at it another way.

When we wake up on Friday all the problems of the world will still be there, as will our own personal fears and hopes.

Whether in or out of Europe, we will still need to work together, and with other nations in the world, to face the challenges of the world.

Therefore we need to recognise before we vote and whatever side we happen to be on, that the vast majority of us actually all want the same thing – a world of justice, stability and peace, even though we may differ about how to achieve it.

Therefore we need to be reconciled.

And isn’t this our best instinct?

The recognition that we are responsible for one another – in our families, in our nation, and across the whole world. Jo Cox was a person of great compassion, and someone who was powerfully motivated to work for the common good.

Let us try to be like this ourselves, putting secondary differences behind us.

And could we try one other thing, too. Let’s also put behind us the cynicism that has crept into our society where we look at those in public life with disdain, thinking they are only in it for what they can get out.

This has never really been true. Members of Parliament are servants of our nation.

They deserve our support.

They are the ones who are going to have to work with the consequences of our votes.