Disgraced MP Mike Amesbury has said he will quit the Commons after punching a constituent.
The former Labour MP was given a 10-week prison term, which was reduced to a suspended sentence after an appeal, leaving him at risk of being ousted from Parliament through the recall process.
The Runcorn and Helsby MP told the BBC he would “step aside at the earliest opportunity”.
Mike Amesbury (centre) leaving Chester Crown Court after he had his 10-week prison sentence for assault suspended for two years (Peter Byrne/PA)
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.
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.