Labour MP Mike Amesbury to stand down (Image: Getty)
Former Labour MP Mike Amesbury has said he will stand down from parliament at the “earliest opportunity”after being given a prison sentence for punching a constituent. This means Sir faces his first by-election test in Runcorn and Helsby after the former Labour said he will resign following a conviction for assault.
Amesbury received a 10-week jail sentence last month for punching a constituent but had the sentence suspended following an appeal. His resignation will trigger the first by-election of Sir Keir’s Labour government. In his first interview since the sentencing, Amesbury said he “regrets” attacking Paul Fellows “every moment, every day”.
But Amesbury told the he would have tried to remain an MP, a job he said was his “calling”, if he had been given a lighter community sentence.
Asked about his future, Amesbury said: “I’m going to step aside at the earliest opportunity.
“I’ve got processes I must go through – there’s a statutory process in terms of redundancies.”
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He described the fallout from his court case as “difficult” but said he “owns” his mistake.
Under parliamentary rules, if an MP receives a custodial sentence, a “recall petition” is triggered.
If at least 10% of his constituents had voted to remove Amesbury, a by-election would have been called – potentially ousting him as MP.
‘s Reform UK hopes to win the by-election when it takes place.
Labour’s Amesbury had received 52.9% of the vote in July, followed by Reform UK’s Jason Moorcroft who received 18%
Amesbury defended continuing to take his MP wages – despite not appearing in a House of Commons debates since video of him punching Mr Fellows first surfaced in October 2024.
He said he carried out casework for his constituents, even while behind bars.
“I actually picked up some casework in prison,” Amesbury said, as his office manager forwarded on “correspondence”.
“Life doesn’t stop as an MP,” he added.
Amesbury spent three nights in jail following his 10-week sentence being handed down at Chester Magistrates’ Court on 24 February.
Chester Crown Court later suspended his sentence, allowing him to serve his time in the community instead of behind bars.
As part of his suspended sentence, Amesbury must carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, undertake an alcohol monitoring programme, go on an anger management course and carry out 20 days of rehabilitation work.
Asked how he responded to people who might think he had been treated lightly in having his sentence suspended, Amesbury said he had been “punished accordingly”.
He added: “I pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity in terms of the law.
Amesbury told how he is “going to lose the family home”, his livelihood and walk away with a criminal record.
“If people think that’s lightly, so be it,” he added.
Amesbury said he had received death threats and the impact of a stalker had raised his “anxiety levels”.
He said threats and abuse “make you on edge”.
Amesbury said: “So, when someone approached me at ten past two in the morning it was quite natural to be on edge and anxious – and I got it wrong.”
He said he should have walked away, adding: “I just saw red – a moment of madness which I will regret for the rest of my life.”
Amesbury added he would like to apologise to Mr Fellows in person but held back as the legal process unfolded.