After nearly two decades as an MP, Rosie Cooper is rejoining the NHS. A few years ago, a guy accused of belonging to a neo-Nazi group was convicted of plotting to kill her with a replica Roman sword.
As a result of Rosie Cooper’s 17-year resignation as an MP, a by-election will be conducted this autumn in a Labour-held constituency.
The Labour member of parliament, who has represented West Lancashire since 2005, stated that the revelation “may come as a surprise to many” given that she had just been reselected to run for the seat in the upcoming election.
Ms. Cooper, 72, stated that she had accepted a new position as chair of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and will therefore resign.
In 2019, she retained her seat with more than 52 percent of the vote and a majority of 8,336. By-election will be held “this autumn.”
Ms. Cooper stated, “It has been a tremendous honor and joy to serve the residents of West Lancashire for the past seventeen years. Even during the most trying periods, I have enjoyed every second.
“I understand this may come as a surprise to many, as I was recently reselected as the Labour Party candidate for West Lancashire in the upcoming general election. This occurred before the recruitment process for the position at Mersey Care.”
Before applying for the position, she stated that she had engaged in “much soul-searching and meditation,” adding, “The events I have endured over the past five years are well-documented and have taken their toll.”
The Neo-Nazi conspiracy to assassinate in the name of ‘white jihad’
The MP was the target of an alleged assassination plan by a member of the banned neo-Nazi group National Action, the same group whose member murdered Labour MP, Jo Cox.
In 2018, 23-year-old Jack Renshaw of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, was guilty of conspiring to murder Ms. Cooper for “white jihad” and for threatening to murder police officer Victoria Henderson.
In the summer of 2017, he admitted on the opening day of his trial at the Old Bailey that he intended to kill Ms. Cooper with a replica Roman Gladius sword. He boasted to other club members that he had already purchased a knife advertised as having “19 inches of unmatched piercing and cutting power at a cheap price.”
The court heard that Renshaw intended to commit a “politically and racially motivated murder” in favor of National Action. He denied membership in the group.
Renshaw instructed the group that, after murdering Ms. Cooper, he would take hostages and demand that PC Henderson arrive at the site before he murdered her.
Ms. Cooper, a former Liberal Democrat, formerly served as chair of Liverpool Women’s Hospital and trustee of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.
She stated that returning to the NHS “felt like the right opportunity at the right moment,” but that it prevents her from pursuing “my other love, representing the people of West Lancashire as their MP.”
She thanked her constituents and expressed regret about leaving office.
