Mike Amesbury has written to Chancellor Rachel Reeves to formally resign as the MP for Runcorn & Helsby, after he was handed a suspended prison sentence for punching a man in the street.
The former Labour MP was given a 10-week prison term after punching a constituent, which was reduced to a suspended sentence after an appeal, leaving him at risk of being ousted from Parliament through the recall process.
Mr Amesbury pleaded guilty in January to assaulting constituent Paul Fellows, 45, after a row in the street in Frodsham, Cheshire, in the early hours of October 26.
“It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform you of my decision to resign from the House of Commons by accepting an office under the Crown,” he wrote in the letter.
“This step, though immensely difficult, is the honourable course of action that I believe is in the best interests of my constituents— whom I have been proud to represent throughout my tenure.”
He said he had “endeavoured to give a voice to the voiceless” during his time in Parliament.
But he said he acknowledged that his time as an MP “has been curtailed by a mistake for which I have taken full responsibility, both before the judiciary and now in this chamber”.
“I offer my sincerest apologies to Mr Fellows, his family, my own family, my constituents, and to Parliament as a whole,” he added.
He won his seat last year with a majority of 14,696 over Reform UK, and his resignation will be a first by-election test for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
Footage showed Mr 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.
