Suspended Labour MP Mike Amesbury jailed after punching man in street
MP Mike Amesbury has been jailed for 10 weeks after punching a man in the street – and has been kicked out of the Labour Party.
The Runcorn and Helsby MP pleaded guilty in January to assault by beating of 45-year-old Paul Fellows in Main Street, Frodsham, Cheshire, in the early hours of 26 October.
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As well as a 10-week jail sentence, Amesbury, 55, must pay £200 compensation to Mr Fellows.
Amesbury had been drinking in the town in his constituency where he lives before arriving at a taxi rank, where Mr Fellows approached him to complain about the closure of the Sutton Weaver swing bridge.
The court heard how, after punching Mr Fellows in the head and knocking him to the ground, Amesbury punched him a further five times on the ground before members of the public intervened.
As he was being held back, he told Mr Fellows: “You won’t threaten your MP again, will you?”
The victim suffered a lump on his head and a graze on his elbow in what the Crown Prosecution Service said was a “persistent assault”.
MP Mike Amesbury outside Chester Ellesmere Port and Neston Magistrates’ Court. Pic: PA
Labour and Reform call for by-election
Amesbury’s future as an MP remains under question as his lawyer indicated he will appeal the sentence.
Otherwise, MPs who receive a custodial sentence, even if it is suspended, automatically trigger a recall petition which could result in a by-election if 10% of constituents sign it.
This will have to wait until the appeal period is over.
Labour suspended Amesbury from the party shortly after the incident, so he has been sitting as an independent.
They have said he will not be admitted back in and called for a by-election, saying his constituents “deserved better” after his “completely unacceptable actions”.
Reform UK also called for Amesbury “to do the honourable thing and resign immediately”.
‘Alarm bells will be ringing’ for PM
Sky News chief political correspondent Jon Craig said while Labour won the seat at last year’s election with a “fairly healthy majority” of more than 14,000, there will be “real nervousness” within the party about holding it.
Reform came second in Runcorn and Helsby at the general election and – given their lead in the national polls – Craig said “alarm bells will be ringing” for Sir Keir Starmer.
Tap here to read Jon Craig’s full analysis.
Mike Amesbury was captured punching a man on CCTV
‘A necessary punishment’
Sentencing Amesbury, deputy senior district judge Tan Ikram said an immediate custodial sentence was “necessary as a punishment and a deterrent”.
The judge added Amesbury, who has been an MP since 2017, would serve 40% of his sentence in custody and will remain on licence for 12 months after his release.
Amesbury’s lawyer requested the judge return to the court moments after he was taken to the cells by two security guards, as he wanted to make a bail application while they appeal his sentence.
The judge returned to court, sat down, paused briefly and said: “Application refused.”
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Amesbury will be taken to HMP Altcourse in Liverpool. Unlike many defendants, he did not appear to have a bag of belongings with him.
After pleading guilty, he described the incident as “highly regrettable” and apologised to Mr Fellows and his family outside the court.
Alison Storey, senior specialist prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime division, said Amesbury’s victim did not react aggressively and was alone at the time of the assault.
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Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.
MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.
Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.
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Rachel Reeves’s fiscal dilemma
In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.
“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.
“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.
“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”
Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.
The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.
It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.
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Why was the chancellor crying at PMQs?
Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.
Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”
In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.
“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”
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Reeves is ‘totally’ up for the job
Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.
“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.
“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”
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