Runcorn and Helsby MP Mike Amesbury said he regrets the attack ‘every moment, every day’ and said he would step down from Parliament at the ‘earliest opportunity’
Mike Amesbury: CCTV shows moment Labour MP punched man to the ground
An MP who punched a constituent in a late-night row has said he will step down at the “earliest opportunity”.
Mike Amesbury, 55, was handed a 10-week prison sentence after admitting assault by beating. It was suspended for two years following an appeal at Chester Crown Court. The court heard Amesbury, 55, had been drinking before he arrived at a taxi rank, where Paul Fellows approached him to remonstrate about a bridge closure in the town.
Footage played in court showed 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 then heard saying “You won’t threaten your MP again will you?”
The Runcorn and Helsby MP said he “regrets” attacking Mr Fellows “every moment, every day”. He told the BBC: “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.”
The move will trigger the first by-election of this Parliament, teeing up a battle for Keir Starmer’s party against Reform UK. Amesbury won the seat for Labour at the general election with a 14,696 majority but was suspended by the party after the incident. Nigel Farage’s party came second with 7,662 votes, followed by the Tories on 6,756 votes.
Amesbury said the fallout from the case was “difficult” but said he “owns” his mistake. He said he would like to apologise to his victim but had waited until the legal process was completed.
In the days leading up to the incident, Amesbury claimed he had been dealing with death threats and a stalker which raised his “anxiety levels”.
“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 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.”
