Strip searches and just two visits per month: What jailed MP Mike Amesbury can expect in new Category B prison home

The home secretary has called for him to resign or face a recall petition amid outrage over receiving £91,000 MP’s salary in jail. Jailed MP Mike Amesbury faces being strip-searched and will only be allowed two visits per month inside a Category B men’s prison after he was jailed for punching a constituent.

The Runcorn and Helsby MP is expected to serve 40 per cent of his 10-week sentence inside medium security HMP Altcourse, where ex-Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy was held on remand before he was cleared of rape charges. The men’s prison in Liverpool, which is run by private firm G4S, holds around 1,158 prisoners and is a far cry from the halls of Westminster he has left behind.

In 2023 an inmate was battered around the head with a kettle at the prison for being a “grass” during his trial at Liverpool Crown Court. Thomas Waring, 20, appeared in the dock with visible injuries following the incident, which was described in court as being “smashed around the side of the face with a kettle and told ‘that’s what happens to grasses’.”.

He was eventually convicted of assisting the killer of Elle Edwards, who was shot dead outside a pub in Wallasey, Merseyside, on Christmas Eve in 2022 after being innocently caught in the middle of a gang feud. Although inspectors said Altcourse was “calm and well-ordered”, some 241 prisoner-on-prisoner assaults were recorded in the 12-months prior to the most recent prison inspection in November 2021.

At the time of the inspectors visit, 19 per cent of prisoners had tested positive for drugs during the most recent random testing exercise. Inspectors noted eight self-inflicted deaths had taken place at the prison since their last inspection in 2017 and said some risk factors for new arrivals were not always being adequately assessed.

The prison, which has a high turnover of new arrivals, processes around 400 new inmates each month. New arrivals are strip-searched and prisoners are limited to two social visits per month, the inspection report said. Home secretary Yvette Cooper has said she wants to see the former Labour MP resign or face a recall petition so Runcorn constituents “get new representation as swiftly as possible”.

Amesbury, 55, pleaded guilty to assault after he punched a man in the street in the early hours of 26 October last year, after he had been drinking. An application for bail, pending an appeal against his sentence, was refused by the sentencing judge at Chester Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

The MP told his victim “you won’t threaten your MP again will you” during the incident in Frodsham, Cheshire, after the pair started to remonstrate over a bridge closure in the town. Footage showed Amesbury punch Mr Fellows to the head, knocking him to the ground, then follow him onto the road and start to punch him again, at least five times.

The victim Paul Fellows, 45, had an injury to his head and reported a headache, as well as a superficial graze to his elbow. When arrested, Amesbury said he had acted in self-defence and suggested he felt “threatened” and “intimidated”, the court heard.

As well as a 10-week jail sentence, Amesbury must pay £200 compensation to Mr Fellows. He will also not be allowed back into the Labour Party, which suspended him shortly after the incident. He has been serving as an independent since his suspension but the sentence leaves him at risk of being ousted if his constituents back a petition calling for a by-election.

However under the Parliamentary Standards Act, he could still earn his £91,000 salary while inside until he is no longer an MP. Ms Cooper told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I want to see him either obviously resign or face recall, and so that we can have a new MP in place.”.

Asked for a response on Amesbury continuing to be an MP and receiving full pay, she added: “I think you’re asking me about parliamentary rules and procedure, which are obviously separate from those that the Government runs … I’m making my view clear, which is that I want to see the people of Runcorn get new representation as swiftly as possible.”.