EU chief Martin Schulz caused outrage today after blaming MP Jo Cox's death on the "nasty" referendum.

The European Parliament president said her death was an example of how unpredictable the EU referendum campaign was.

Former colleagues of Mrs Cox hit out at Mr Schulz over his comments which were made during a lecture on Brexit at the London School of Economics.

In an attack on Britain's referendum debate, Mr Schulz said: "Who would have anticipated precisely what came next?

"That the campaign would get so nasty that a Member of the UK Parliament, Jo Cox, would be brutally murdered, in broad daylight, for her political convictions?"

Tory MP Jacob Rees Mogg accused Mr Schulz of 'trivialising' the mother of two's death and said he was significantly over-simplifying the circumstances behind the tragedy.