amesbury

By-election possible after MP pleads guilty to assault

THE possibility of a by-election has arisen following the conviction of Runcorn and Helsby MP Mike Amesbury for an assault in Frodsham in October.

Amesbury, who is currently sitting as an Independent MP, after being suspended by Labour, pleaded guilty at Chester Magistrates Court today (Thursday) to assaulting Paul Fellows in Frodsham in the early hours of October 26.
CCTV footage showed the MP punching Mr Fellows and shouting “You won’t threaten an MP ever again will you?”
After the footage was published, the MP was suspended by Labour, with the approval of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Amesbury was granted bail until February 24 when he will be sentenced. If he receives a custodial or suspected sentence, a by-election would be triggered if 10 per cent of eligible voters signed a petition.
Such a by-election would be the first since Labour took power.
In court today, the judge said sentencing guidelines suggested a range from a high-level community service order to as custodial sentence.
After the hearing, Amesbury, who has been an MP since 2017, said the incident had been “highly regrettable” and he would like to apologise to Mr Fellows and his family.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “It is right that Mike Amesbury has taken responsibility for his unacceptable actions.
“He was rightly suspended by the Labour party following the announcement of the police investigation. “
If a by-election was held, Reform UK, who came second last year, would have hopes of capturing the constituency, which includes Frodaham

Posted in .

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.