A neo-Nazi who planned to murder Labour MP Rosie Cooper in a terrorist attack has been jailed for life.
Jack Renshaw, must serve at least 20 years in prison.
The 23-year-old Renshaw, from Skelmersdale in Lancashire, pleaded guilty to the charges, following a police investigation into a plot to murder Labour MP Rosie Cooper. He bought a knife to kill the politician and threatened a police officer.
Renshaw was also convicted of inciting racial hatred in speeches given in 2016.
He is believed to have raised his arm in what appeared to be a Nazi salute as he was taken away.
Renshaw’s plot was foiled after he announced his plan to murder Cooper at a meeting in a pub among National Action members.
A judge at the Old Bailey said Renshaw, who earlier admitted preparing an act of terror, wanted to “replicate” the murder of Jo Cox.
Renshaw made a Nazi salute towards supporters as he was led to the cells from the dock.
He pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial to buying a machete to kill the West Lancashire MP and making threats to kill police officer Det Con Victoria Henderson.
The 23-year-old bought a 19-inch (48cm) Gladius knife to kill Rosie Cooper and exact revenge on a female police officer who was investigating him for child sex offences.
The plan was scuppered by whistleblower Robbie Mullen, who was at a meeting in a pub when Renshaw announced that he was going to kill Cooper in July 2017.
It came just a year after Labour MP Jo Cox was stabbed and shot by far-right extremist Thomas Mair.
Renshaw, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, is a convicted paedophile who was jailed last June for 16 months after he groomed two underage boys online.
Jurors at Preston Crown Court had found him guilty of four counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
A jury twice failed to reach a verdict on charges relating to his membership of banned neo-Nazi group National Action.
Sentencing him for the terror plot, Judge Justice McGowan said Renshaw’s “perverted view of history and current politics” led him to “an attempt to damage our entire system of democracy”.
She said: “You praised the murder of Jo Cox in tweets and posts in June 2017. In some bizarre way you saw this as a commendable act and set out to replicate that behaviour.”
The judge added Renshaw had made “detailed arrangements” and studied Ms Cooper’s itinerary.
Renshaw set up two fake Facebook profiles and contacted the boys, aged 13 and 14, between February 2016 and January 2017.
Communicating via Facebook messenger, Renshaw boasted to the youngsters that he was rich, could give them jobs and offered one of them £300 to spend the night with him.
He also requested intimate photographs of the pair, before one of the boys reported the messages to his tutor and the police were contacted.
He also received a three-year prison sentence two months earlier when he was found guilty of stirring up racial hatred after he called for the genocide of Jewish people.
He went on to admit making preparations to kill his local MP and making a threat to kill police officer Victoria Henderson.
But he denied membership of banned extreme right-wing group National Action and a jury was discharged when they failed to reach a verdict.
Sentencing Renshaw, Justice McGowan said: “Your perverted view of history and current politics has caused you to believe it right to demonise groups simply because they are different from you.”
She added: “This is a case in which only a sentence of life imprisonment can meet the appalling seriousness of your offending.”
The judge also commended MP Rosie Cooper and police officer Victoria Henderson.
“The dignity and bravery they have demonstrated show the true public spirit and public interest that motivated their work,” she said.
In a statement after the sentencing, Cooper said: “My deepest wish is that this case is the last occasion when any public servant, any politician, has their life threatened for simply doing their job.
“I believe today justice has been served. Not for me personally, but for every MP and public servant, and for our democratic way of life which affords us the privilege of free speech, without fear of violent retribution.”
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