If things didn’t become any worse for our hapless PM Sir Keir Starmer, now it’s the loss of another MP.
This time, it is Mike Amesbury, who was filmed assaulting a member of the public during a very heated altercation. The member for Runcorn since 2017 was swiftly suspended by the party, and is currently facing a full police investigation. In a worse case scenario, Amesbury could be forced to resign the seat as an MP, which could lead to the first by-election of this parliament. No doubt both the Conservatives and Reform UK are eyeing up the possibility of a major gain, if the by-election takes place. Not surprisingly, most political commentators will use this as an example of Starmer’s failure to control his MPs (Amesbury is the ninth to lose the Labour whip since the general election), some of them even compared the incident, wrongly, to the one involving former deputy PM John Prescott in 2001.
At a time when public faith in both politics and politicians is at an all-time low, they cannot be seen to be either verbally or physically abusive to their constituents. They must promote the highest of standards in elected office and be models of restraint under both public and media pressure.