Who is MP Mike Amesbury and what happened?

MP Mike Amesbury has been jailed for 10 weeks for assault by beating after a video emerged showing him punching a man to the ground in his Cheshire constituency.

Who is he, what happened, and how has his political career played out?

Mike Amesbury, 55, is the MP for Runcorn and Helsby in Cheshire.

He was elected as a Labour MP but was suspended by the party in October 2024 when CCTV footage emerged of him punching a man in the Cheshire town of Frodsham.

In footage shared widely on social media, Amesbury could be heard shouting: "You won't threaten the MP ever again, will you?"

He admitted the charge in court on 16 January 2025.

Born in the Wythenshawe area of Manchester on 6 May 1969, he said in an interview shortly after being elected to Parliament that he had joined Labour at the age of about 17 when his family were living in Castleford, Yorkshire.

He said the miners' strikes were a key part of his motivation.

In his maiden speech to the House of Commons, he said his father was a carpet fitter and then a publican and his mother cleaned caravans and served school dinners.

He said he became the first in his family to get a degree and worked as a careers adviser.

"As a lad born in Wythenshawe, Manchester, I never envisaged that I would have the honour of sitting on these green benches," he said.

On his website, he said his Labour politics were shaped by his working class background.

In 2014, he wrote in a local newspaper about having depression and being prescribed anti-depressants.

In 2023, a man was given a restraining order after being found guilty of stalking and harrassing him.

After the conviction, Amesbury said the situation had resulted in him feeling "that little bit more anxious".

He is married with a son.

During sentencing on Monday, the court heard Amesbury had been drinking before he arrived at a taxi rank, where his victim, constituent Paul Fellows, 45, approached him to remonstrate about a bridge closure in the town.

Footage showed Amesbury punching Mr Fellows in the head in Main Street in Frodsham, Cheshire, in the early hours of October 26.

The footage showed Mr Fellows being knocked to the ground, with Amesbury punching him again at least five times.

Amesbury was then heard saying: "You won't threaten your MP again will you, you f****** soft lad?"

Members of the public restrained Amesbury and one was heard to say: "You'll never be MP after tonight, mate."

When arrested, Amesbury said he had acted in self defence and suggested he felt "threatened" and "intimidated", the court heard.

Amesbury was first elected as a councillor for Manchester City Council for the area of Fallowfield in 2006.

From 2008 to 2012, he was the authority's executive member for culture and leisure.

During that time, he worked for some well-known Labour politicians.

He spent just over a year working as a senior parliamentary adviser to Ashton-under-Lyne MP Angela Rayner and then a period working for Andy Burnham first while he was an MP and later during his campaign to become the first mayor of Greater Manchester.

In 2017 he was first elected to Parliament, winning the seat of Weaver Vale from the Conservatives.

He held the seat until it was abolished before the 2024 election.

During his time as Weaver Vale MP, he held a number of shadow ministerial positions, including shadow housing minister and shadow local government minister.

He also introduced a private members' bill to give schools guidance on uniform costs in 2020, which became law a year later and enforced from September 2022.

At the 2024 general election, he was elected to the newly created seat of Runcorn and Helsby receiving a majority of just under 15,000.

Because Amesbury was handed a custodial sentence - even if it had been suspended - a recall petition is set to be triggered, after any appeals have been exhausted or the appeal period has elapsed.

If 10% of his constituents sign that petition that would force a by-election.

However, an MP losing their seat as a result of a recall petition does not stop them from standing in any resulting by-election.

People are disqualified from standing as an MP if they receive a prison sentence of more than one year.

However, opposition parties have demanded his immediate resignation.

If he had not received a prison sentence, there is no process in place to force MPs to resign following a conviction without jail time. There has been an example of this in recent years.

The former Labour MP Claudia Webbe was convicted of harassment and, as her sentence was reduced to community service on appeal in 2022, she remained as an independent MP until losing to the Conservatives in the 2024 general election.

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