Update 2 | Suspect in MP’s murder gives name as ‘death to traitors', linked with white supremacy

The man charged with the murder of UK Labour MP Jo Cox gave his name in court as “death to traitors, freedom for Britain”.

Thomas Mair, 52, from Birstall, was charged on Friday with murder, grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an automatic weapon, West Yorkshire police said in a statement.

Asked at the Westminster magistrates court on Saturday to confirm his name, Mair responded: “My name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain”. The judge then asked his lawyers to confirm that his name was Thomas Mair, which they did.

Mair was not required to enter a plea and his lawyer Keith Allen said there was no indication of what plea would be given. He added that his client had applied for legal aid.

Deputy chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot ordered that Mair be remanded in custody at the Belmarsh prison until his next appearance, at the Old Bailey on Monday. She suggested that a psychiatric report on the man be prepared, noting the name he had given the court.

Jo Cox was fatally injured outside her constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire, on Thursday. She is the first sitting MP to be killed since 1990, when Ian Gow was the last in a string of politicians to die at the hands of Northern Irish terror groups.

Prosecutor David Cawthorne, from the counter-terrorism division of the Crown Prosectuion Service, told the court that Cox had visited a primary school and care home on Thursday morning, before heading to the library with colleagues for a pre-arranged surgery with her constituents. She was stabbed and fell to the ground, where she was then shot and stabbed further.

Temporary Chief Constable Dee Collins on Friday said that a 77-year-old man remains in a stable condition in hospital after he was injured when he "bravely intervened" in an effort to help the mother of two.

The US-based Southern Poverty Law Center has published what it says are documents that prove Mair’s history of purchasing material from the National Alliance white supremacist US group.

It released copies of receipts and a 2013 subscription to the National Alliance’s publication National Vanguard, as well as receipts from 1999 showing purchases for the neo-Nazi book “Ich Kampfe”, the “Improvised Munitions Handbook” and other books.

The editor of a pro-apartheid groups’s magazine told CNN that Mair had subscribed to them back in the 1980s.

“A Mr. Thomas A. Mair from Batley in Yorkshire subscribed to our magazine S.A. Patriot when we were still published in South Africa itself,” A.D. Harvey said, adding that the magazine had “no further contact with him” after brief correspondence in the mid-1980s.

“We were of course appalled and sickened to learn of the murder yesterday of Ms. Jo Cox.”

Diana Peters, a 65-year-old neighbour of Mair, described the man now charged with murder as “an ideal neighbor”

“It’s a total surprise that he was even capable of thought, let alone action. And, yeah, he’s just an ideal neighbour. Helpful when you wanted it, kept himself to himself,” she said, adding that he is “very neat and tidy”and a “very meek and mild man who liked cats”.

She said that Mair taught English to foreigners as a part-time volunteer for years, and that the two never discussed politics. She said she never saw anyone visiting Mair’s home and had never been inside it, but that she believed he visited his mother every Sunday and took her groceries once a week.

“He spoke rationally. He did his day-to-day routine.”

Six years ago, Mair was quoted in the local newspaper about his work as a volunteer at Oakwell Hall, a manor house popular with tourists in Birstall.

“Voluntary work had done me more good than all the psychotherapy and medication in the world,” he had told the Huddersfield Examiner. “Many people who suffer from mental illness are socially isolated and disconnected from society, feelings of worthlessness are also common, mainly caused by long-term unemployment.”

West Yorkshire police said they seized several weapons, including a firearm, shortly after the attack. However, Mair’s half-brother Duane St Louis told ITV News that he’d never seen any sign that he had an interest in weapons.

He said there was “no chance” that Mair was racist, and that his half-brother “had never been in trouble” and “wouldn’t hurt a fly”.

St Louis said that he had spoken to Mair’s mother after the attack and that she was “shocked and can’t understand what happened”.

Vigils were held across the United Kingdom on Friday evening as members of the public and politicians came together to lay flowers, light candles and stand in silence in memory of Cox.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the whole nation was "rightly shocked" at her death and called for people to "value, and see as precious, the democracy we have on these islands".

“Politics is about public service and MPs want to "make the world a better place", he said.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn described the former aid worker as "an exceptional, wonderful, very talented woman who had so much to give and so much of her life ahead of her", during a joint visit to her home town.

Chris Bryant, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, told BBC Newsnight that had warned Westminster authorities about "inadequate protection in their constituencies".

"I've said in terms an MP will be shot. This will happen. And the truth is we all know we can't guarantee that something like this won't happen again but we need to make sure that we've taken all the proper precautions," he said.

"I don't think the system is right to be able to deliver real security... for constituents when they come to a surgery, for staff in MPs offices, for MPs. There needs to be a regular risk assessment."

Tributes have flooded in from across the world, and US President Barack Obama phoned Cox’s husband from Air Force One.  

"The president noted that the world is a better place because of her selfless service to others, and that there can be no justification for this heinous crime, which robbed a family, a community, and a nation of a dedicated wife, mother and public servant,” a White House statement read.

Canadian MP Nathan Cullen, who was a friend of Cox, broke down with emotion as he paid tribute to the late MP in Canada's House of Commons.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in a tweet that the murder was an attack on the democratic ideal.

The Remain and Vote Leave sides have suspended national campaigning in light of Cox's death, while the Prime Minster confirmed that Parliament would be recalled on Monday. The House of Lords has also been recalled to pay tribute to Cox.