UK MPs have broken down in tears as the House of Commons met in London in "heartbreaking sadness" to pay tribute to murdered Labour MP Jo Cox.

Mrs Cox (41) was shot and stabbed in the street outside her constituency surgery in Birstall, near Leeds, on Thursday.

Bernard Kenny (77) who suffered a serious injury to his abdomen as he tried to help the MP, has been discharged from hospital after treatment.

The British parliament had been in recess for the EU referendum, but was recalled so MPs could pay tribute to her.

A white rose was put alongside a red rose in Mrs Cox's usual place on the Labour benches and MPs wore white roses in memory of her.

A white and red rose lie on Jo Cox's empty seat in the House of Commons, London, as MPs gather to pay tribute to her | Image: PA / PA Wire/Press Association Images

Her husband Brendan and two young children were seated in the gallery overlooking the Commons as speaker after speaker, from all sides of the political divide, spoke warmly of her passion, determination, wisdom and love for humanity.

Mrs Cox's parents Jean and Gordon, her sister Kim and close friends were also seated in the gallery.

Mrs Cox's three-year-old daughter Lejla played with a drawing board as she sat on her father's knee, while her son Cuillin (5) snuggled up to his grandmother.

Opening the session, the Speaker John Bercow said: "Colleagues, we meet today in heartbreaking sadness but also in heartfelt solidarity."

"Any death in such awful circumstances is an outrage and a tragedy. Yet this death, in this manner, of this person, our democratically elected colleague Jo Cox, is particularly shocking and repugnant."

Speaking next, British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mrs Cox "believed in loving her neighbour's neighbour" and thought that "every life counted equally."

"We are filled with sorrow for her husband Brendan and young children," he said.

"They will never see her again but they can be so proud of everything she was, all she achieved and all she stood for as we are, as are her parents, as is her sister and her whole wider family."

"No-one can replace a mother"

British Prime Minister David Cameron recalled that he first met Mrs Cox in 2006 in Darfur where she was an aid worker and "doing what she was so brilliant at - bravely working in one of the most dangerous parts of the world fighting for the lives of refugees."

"Jo was a humanitarian to her core - a passionate and brilliant campaigner whose grit and determination to fight for justice saw her time and time again driving issues up the agenda and making people listen and above all act," he said.

Her long-time friend Labour MP Rachel Reeves told how Mrs Cox shadowed her when she was thinking about becoming an MP.

By the end of the day, she joked, people thought Mrs Cox was the MP.

She broke down in tears as she said that Batley and Spen will find a new MP but "no-one can replace a mother".

She also said Mrs Cox's parents told her their daughter lived the life she wanted to but "had so much more she could have done".

"Her mum and dad said to me that Jo wouldn't have changed a thing," Ms Reeves said.

"She lived the life that she wanted to live and yet in her mum's words, she had so much more that she could have done."

Several of her Labour colleagues were in tears before the speeches started.

The whole House rose in standing ovation after the hour-long tribute and MPs then left the Commons for a memorial service at St Margaret's Church, across the road.

Thomas Mair is charged with murder, grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon in connection with the attack on Mrs Cox.