LONDON: The widower of a slain British lawmaker stepped down from two charities set up in his late wife’s memory after a newspaper reported allegations of past sexual misconduct against him.

Brendan Cox said late on Saturday he had acted inappropriately and would leave his positions at the Jo Cox Foundation and the More in Common charity. Both were started after a far-right extremist fatally shot and stabbed legislator Jo Cox just before the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Brendan Cox said he wanted to apologise “deeply and unreservedly” for his past behaviour while working at another charity.

“I do acknowledge and understand that during my time at Save the Children I made mistakes and behaved in a way that caused some women hurt and offence,” Cox said in a statement. He promised to hold himself to “much higher standards” in the future.

The allegations against Cox surfaced last week in Britain’s Mail on Sunday. He called the newspaper’s repo­rts a “massive exaggeration,” but admitted making mistakes. On Sunday, the paper published what it said was a tearful interview with him in which he expressed remorse about his behaviour.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2018