jQuery closest() remove() on doesn’t work?

Please see this page which has this code:

<div class="pure-control-group query-brand-by-column">
<!– somethings else –>
<div class="pure-u-1 pure-u-sm-1-24 control-group-sub">
<a href="javascript:$(this).closest('.query-brand-by-column').remove();" class="pure-button danger">X</a>
[…]

See original post by invalid@example.com (TheDataPlanet.com)