LONDON (Kashmir English): A UK court sentenced a British lawmaker to 10 weeks in prison on Monday for punching one of his constituents after a night out.
There are chances Mike Amesbury could be ousted from parliament and that will trigger an electoral test for the governing Labour Party.
He was suspended from Labour after he was captured in a CCTV footage throwing a punch at a man in the month of October last year and repeatedly hitting him after the victim fell onto the ground.
Initial statement of British MP
The 55-year-old British lawmaker initially said he felt threatened on the street. Amesbury is the MP for Runcorn and Helsby in England’s northwest.
Amesbury appeared at Chester Magistrates’ Court, where prosecutor Alison Storey argued that a member of the public approached Amesbury at a taxi queue just after 2am on October 26 to complain him about a local bridge closure.
She went on saying that the British MP then knocked the man to the floor punching him at least five times when he was on the ground.
“He then told his victim: You won’t threaten your MP again, will you?”
Richard Derby, Amesbury’s lawyer, said he was regretful and had apologised for his actions, asking for the court to pass a sentence of unpaid work.
But Judge Tan Ikram said: “Unprovoked drunken behaviour in the early hours in the streets is too serious to be dealt with by unpaid hours of work.”
He was sentenced to 10 weeks for a single count of common assault. Amesbury had pleaded guilty last month. He will serve 40% of the sentence in custody.
Amesbury can now be removed from office if enough constituents endorse a petition calling for a new election for the parliamentary seat. The same would put pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer-led Labour.
Amesbury had won the seat comfortably for Labour in July election.
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK Chairman, said in a statement: “We call on Mike Amesbury to do the honourable thing and resign immediately so a by-election can be held.”
