Mike Amesbury QUITS as an MP after being jailed for punching a constituent – setting up crunch by-election for Labour and Reform_Nhy
Former Labour MP Mike Amesbury quit Parliament today, weeks after being jailed for drunkenly punching a constituent.
Amesbury stepped as MP for Runcorn and Helsby to trigger a by-election seen as a bellwether for Labour and Reform UK popularity less than a year after the general election.
The MP pleaded guilty in January to assaulting constituent Paul Fellows, 45, after a row in the street in Frodsham, Cheshire, in the early hours of October 26.
Footage showed Mr Amesbury punching Mr Fellows to the head, knocking him to the ground, then following him on to the road and starting to punch him again, at least five times.
He was given a 10-week prison term, which was reduced to a suspended sentence after an appeal, leaving him at risk of being ousted from Parliament through the recall process.
In a letter to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, formally relinquishing his seat, he said: ‘This step, though immensely difficult, is the honourable course of action that I believe is in the best interests of my constituents— whom I have been proud to represent throughout my tenure.’
He said he had ‘endeavoured to give a voice to the voiceless’ during his time in Parliament.
But he said he acknowledged that his time as an MP ‘has been curtailed by a mistake for which I have taken full responsibility, both before the judiciary and now in this chamber’.
‘I offer my sincerest apologies to Mr Fellows, his family, my own family, my constituents, and to Parliament as a whole,’ he added.
Amesbury said he will step down as MP for Runcorn and Helsby to trigger a by-election seen as a bellwether for Labour and Reform UK popularity.
He won his seat last year with a majority of 14,696 over Reform UK, and his resignation will be a first by-election test for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
Mr Amesbury told GB News that ‘as from today I will no longer be the Member of Parliament for Runcorn and Helsby after nearly eight years as being an MP’.
He said he was ‘sad’ and ‘devastated’, adding: ‘Not only for me, but (…) my staff as well, because, course, it goes beyond me, for my family. This is a result of something that I did on October 26.’
Asked about the incident, Mr Amesbury said ‘I should have walked away’ and ‘I don’t recognise myself’.
He added: ‘But it is me, and it’s very important that I’ve owned that through the legal process (…) a plea of guilty.’
He said: ‘I’ve paid a price, I’ve been punished and rightfully so, and I hope that I learn from this.’
He won his seat last year with a majority of 14,696 over Reform UK, and his resignation will be a first by-election test for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
Mr Amesbury spent three nights in HMP Altcourse before his 10-week sentence was suspended for two years.
He was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, undertake a 120-day alcohol monitoring requirement, go on an anger management course and complete 20 days of rehabilitation work.
The former Labour MP has been sitting as an independent for the Cheshire seat since he was suspended by the party after his arrest last year. He subsequently resigned his membership.
An MP cannot simply resign from the Commons, instead they are disqualified as a result of being nominally appointed as either the Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds or the Manor of Northstead.
Nigel Farage said Reform would unveil its Runcorn candidate as soon as a byelection date was set
