Labour selects candidate for by-election to replace shamed Amesbury

Labour has selected a candidate to run in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election to replace Mike Amesbury, who said he would quit the Commons after punching a constituent.

Cheshire West & Chester councillor Karen Shore will run as Labour’s candidate.

Former Labour MP Amesbury 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.

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.

“Karen Shore will be a champion for the people of Runcorn and Helsby,” Sir Keir said.

“She’s local and her experience as a teacher and serving the community as a councillor will give people a strong voice in the House of Commons.

“That’s what people in Runcorn and Helsby deserve in their Member of Parliament.

“I look forward to her working hard with ministers if she is elected to deliver the local change that the area and our country deserve.”

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.

Footage showed Amesbury punching Mr Fellows to the head, knocking him to the ground, then following him on to the road and starting to punch him again, at least five times.

He told the BBC he would “step aside at the earliest opportunity”.

The former Labour MP has been sitting as an independent for the Cheshire seat since he was suspended by the party after his arrest last year.

He subsequently resigned his membership.