‘He got exactly what he deserves’: Mike Amesbury’s constituents react after MP jailed for assault

After the 55-year-old was jailed for assaulting a constituent, Barney Davis asked Frodsham locals how they felt now their MP was behind bars. “He deserves everything he gets.”. Kaye Warren, walking her two greyhounds through Frodsham town centre, makes no secret of her feelings towards Mike Amesbury, her MP who will spend tonight behind bars.

“He was a useless MP in the first place. I've tried to get in touch with him over serious issues before now, and he's only available for a photoshoot,” she adds. “He got exactly what he deserves.”. There is a mixture of surprise and satisfaction at today’s news that the 55-year-old former Labour MP, who has been sitting as an independent since he was suspended following his arrest in October last year, has been jailed for 10 weeks after pleading guilty earlier this year to assaulting 45-year-old Paul Fellows.

Mr Fellows had approached the MP to protest about winter fuel allowance and the closure of a local bridge when he was assaulted at 2am outside a taxi rank. Reacting to the ten week prison sentence, pensioner Reg Jones, 74, said: “I think it's pretty grim but he should have been getting longer. It was an absolute assault wasn't it?.

“It hasn’t done the reputation of the town any good at all. Imagine if it happened to you? How would you feel about just ten weeks... you wouldn’t be happy. “I absolutely would not welcome him back as an MP.”. Carer Danny Neville, 55, said: “I think it's maybe a little short, but I'm glad he's actually been punished in some way.

“Most people around here thought he'd probably just get community service, so it's great news. “The majority of people around here will not welcome him back as an MP, no.”. But Donna Jackson, 60, a retired NHS worker said that a frustrated electorate just wants their “pound of flesh” from politicians.

She said: “I feel sorry for him because I've been in a lot of prisons myself, not as an inmate, but I think this is a token of public vengeance. “I think at the moment we're very infantilised and people are very disillusioned, and I think that they want their pound of flesh from politicians.

“He's been our MP for the last eight years.”. She added that Reform were “vultures at the feast” and would probably fare very well in any by-election. Should a by-election take place in the Runcorn and Helsby constituency, Reform – who finished second at the general election in July – would be hoping to overturn Labour’s majority of 14,696.

“They could do it,” she says. “This constituency is very mixed it has nice bits and deprived areas - most of it is just protest votes. People around here are disaffected with politics.”. Mike Dawes, 74, is also concerned the Cheshire seat could be won by Reform.

“I don’t know what the provocation was but it’s no excuse. We are very sad it has happened,” he said. “If he runs as an independent it would split the vote and that might be good for Reform and we don’t want that. “He is normally very approachable and he takes up good local causes, we are happy with his voting pattern but I’m not sure how tenable it is for him to be an MP behind bars. We haven’t seen him for a long time but if you go across and have a quick word with him he’s usually alright.