Amesbury says he will quit as an MP today
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’
Mike Amesbury has said that he will quit his role as the MP for Runcorn and Helsby today.
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”.
The former Labour MP was given a 10-week prison term after punching a constituent, which was reduced to a suspended sentence after an appeal, leaving him at risk of being ousted from Parliament through the recall process.
He had last week told the BBC he would “step aside at the earliest opportunity”.
He told GB News 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 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.
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.
