UK MP jailed for assault, raising prospect of vote test for govt

LONDON: A lawmaker suspended from Britain’s ruling Labour party was jailed for 10 weeks on Monday after pleading guilty to punching a man, potentially triggering an election test for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

MP Mike Amesbury got into a late-night street altercation with a man who complained to him about a bridge closure, which ended with the man being knocked to the ground.

Labour suspended Amesbury, 55, after the Mail Online published a video that apparently showed the assault and he now sits in parliament as an independent.

Starmer described the footage as "shocking" and said his party had moved "very swiftly" to suspend the lawmaker.

Amesbury last month admitted assaulting 45-year-old Paul Fellows in the town of Frodsham, southeast of Liverpool, shortly before 3:00am (0300 GMT) on October 26.

On sentencing, judge Tan Ikram said: "In this case an immediate custodial sentence is, in my judgment, necessary as a punishment and a deterrent."

Amesbury was immediately taken down to holding cells, and will later be taken to Altcourse prison in Liverpool.

Because the sentence is less than 12 months, Amesbury will not automatically lose his Runcorn and Helsby seat in northwest England.

However, if Amesbury does not appeal the verdict, a so-called recall petition will be triggered and a by-election called if 10% of the electorate in his constituency sign it.

It would be the first major electoral test for Starmer’s Labour Party, which swept to power in July but has since slumped in the polls.

Amesbury would still be able to run as an independent candidate, assuming he is not reinstated by Labour.

Prosecutor Alison Storey told the court that witnesses heard Amesbury saying "you won’t threaten your MP again will you" after punching Fellows on the floor.

Court heard that Fellows recognised Amesbury and approached him to protest about the local bridge closure.

"At one point Mr Fellows started to walk away, but was re-engaged by Mr Amesbury," said Storey.

Richard Derby, defending Amesbury, called the assault a "momentary incident".

"Rightly or wrongly, Mr Amesbury interpreted what was being said as no longer a conversation but something to which he thought there was another motive to," he added.

The MP told reporters outside court after pleading guilty that "I am sincerely sorry to Mr Fellows and his family."