Rival camps join hands to honour slain MP

British lawmakers gathered Monday to honour a murdered colleague, attempting a rare show of unity in a heated, neck-and-neck race for votes three days before a referendum on whether to quit the EU.

As the battle raged over Thursday’s vote, latest polls showed the “Remain” camp gaining ground.

Financial markets rallied as Brexit concerns eased, at least temporarily. The pound surged and Europe’s major stock markets in London, Frankfurt and Paris gained more than three per cent in morning trade.

“A higher chance of the UK voting to stay is a relief for markets,” said Mr Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets.

Politicians from both sides of the fight returned to Parliament, which had been in recess, to pay tribute to Jo Cox, a campaigner in favour of EU membership who was shot and killed last week in a village street in northern England.

Her alleged killer, Thomas Mair, was due in court on Monday after being charged at the weekend with murder. The image of unity did not last long.

Top pro-Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), accused his rivals of unashamedly using Cox’s death to boost their cause.

“The ‘Remain’ camp are using these awful circumstances to try to say that the motives of one deranged, dangerous individual were similar of half the country or perhaps more who believe we should leave the EU,” he told the BBC.

If Britain leaves the EU, it would be the first nation to do so in the bloc’s 60-year history.

The British referendum has opened the prospect of other nations demanding a vote, too, perhaps placing in peril the very survival of the European project, which was born out of a determination to forge lasting peace after two world wars.

While the “Remain” camp has tried to focus on the potential economic damage that Brexit could inflict, the “Leave” campaign held out the promise of Britain taking better control of mass immigration if it leaves the EU.