British lawmaker jailed for beating constituent in street during drunken rage

LONDON (AP) — A British lawmaker who punched out a constituent in the street while in a drunken rage was sentenced Monday to 10 weeks in prison.

Mike Amesbury, 55, a member of Parliament who was suspended by the ruling center-left Labour Party after the altercation last year. He pleaded guilty in Chester Magistrates’ Court to assaulting a 45-year-old man.

Amesbury is the first sitting member of Parliament imprisoned since 2019 when Fiona Onasanya was jailed for three months for lying to police about a speeding ticket. At the time, she was the first sitting MP jailed in three decades.

Amesbury was walking to a taxi stand in Frodsham, a small town in northwest England, in the the early hours of Oct. 26 when Paul Fellows complained to him about a local bridge closure, prosecutors said. He had been in town earlier for a meeting about policing and community safety.

Surveillance camera footage showed Amesbury punch Fellows in the face, knocking him into the street. He then stood over him and punched him at least five more times until passersby intervened.

“You won’t threaten your MP again will you?" Amesbury said, using profanity and calling him a “soft lad.”

Both men had been drinking before the incident, a judge said.

Although Fellows wasn’t seriously injured, Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram said he’d handled cases where people died after a single punch.

Defense lawyer Richard Derby said Amesbury’s actions were out of character and any sentence would not be greater than the stain on his reputation. But the judge rejected a plea to let Amesbury walk free, saying he needed to be punished and serve as a deterrent to others.

“Unprovoked drunken behavior in the early hours in the streets is too serious to be dealt with by unpaid hours of work, let alone a community order,” Ikram said. “It is only good fortune that the victim falling onto the road suffered only minor injuries and that you were stopped from going further by members of the public.”

Derby unsuccessfully tried to appeal the sentence after his client was led away by court guards.

Opposition parties called for Amesbury, who represents the constituency of Runcorn and Helsby, to resign. He risks being ousted from office and facing a special election if 10% of his constituents back a recall petition.

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By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press