A Labour MP has admitted thumping a constituent during an early morning altercation.
Michael (Mike) Amesbury, 55, of College Drive, Frodsham, Cheshire, admitted an offence of assault by beating when he appeared at Chester Magistrates' Court on Thursday, 16th January 2025.
Assault by beating, an offence contrary to section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, has a maximum sentence of 26 weeks' custody on summary conviction. You can read more about this offence in my earlier article.
District Judge Tan Ikram presided over the hearing.
Amesbury is the MP for the Runcorn and Helsby constituency, which includes the town of Frodsham where the assault took place during the early hours of Saturday, 26th October 2024. The former union man has been an MP since 2017.
Footage of the assault was circulated within a few hours. The initial video appeared to leave some doubt as to who the aggressor was, with Amesbury quickly releasing a statement saying that he "felt threatened" by the victim, Paul Fellows.
A second video emerged that helped to clarify Amesbury's poor recollection of events. That video, embedded below, showed Amesbury and Mr Fellows engaged in conversation. Mr Fellows was seemingly calm and had his hands in his pockets. Amesbury, on the other hand, was clearly animated, squaring up close to Mr Fellows and gesturing towards him.
As Mr Fellows briefly looked away, Amesbury took the opportunity to direct a punch towards his head. Mr Fellows, clearly taken by surprise at the situation, then fell to the ground where Amesbury punched him at least a further five times to the head. Onlookers were heard trying to break up the scuffle, but Amesbury continued punching Mr Fellows.
Alison Storey, prosecuting, told the court that the altercation arose due to a disagreement over the closure of a local bridge. Both Amesbury and Mr Fellows had been drinking earlier in the evening.
Mr Fellows had seen Amesbury and approached to ask him about the bridge, to which the MP replied it was "nothing to do with me".
She described how the MP punched Mr Fellows when his head was turned, which resulted in him falling to the ground.
Once Mr Fellows was on the ground, Amesbury said to him: "You won't threaten your MP again will you, you fucking soft lad?"
Mr Fellows sought medical attention after the assault, which left him with a lump to the head and headaches.
Amesbury initially told police he had been acting in self-defence, but has now changed his tune - no doubt because the evidence seems to disprove it.
Richard Derby, mitigating, described his client as a man "not of considerable means".
He described the incident as "regrettable and unfortunate" and said that Amesbury had "rightly or wrongly" misinterpreted what Mr Fellows had said.
Mr Derby told the court that the 55-year-old politician had suffered threats as a result of the incident.
DJ Ikram ordered the completion of a pre-sentence report, indicating that all sentencing options remained on the table. The judge noted that the offence seemed to be one of higher culpability, given the way Amesbury aimed repeated punches at Mr Fellows when he was down on the ground.
Amesbury was granted unconditional bail until his sentencing hearing on Monday, 24th February 2025.
Amesbury has now been expelled from the Labour party, having previously been suspended.
Despite his conviction, there is no guarantee Amesbury will lose his Parliamentary seat. That will only happen if he loses a recall petition, thereby triggering a by-election. A recall petition will only be held if he receives a custodial sentence, which is pretty unlikely. Even if a by-election was triggered, Amesbury could stand again if he wanted to.
There may well be pressure exerted on Amesbury to stand aside voluntarily. As that would mean foregoing £7,500 a month in Parliamentary salary and as many expenses as you can shake a stick at, whether he'll actually do that remains to be seen.
My guess, FWIW, is that Amesbury will want to cling on for as long as he can. Having spent the last eight years on the Westminster gravy train, it will be a real culture shock for him having to buy his own loaves of bread, pints of milk and newspapers - in other words, to return to life in the real world.
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