Absent MP will not say whether he will resign
SHEFFIELD HALLAM MP Jared O’Mara has refused to answer whether he will return to Parliament or resign, and threatened to call the police when questioned in Westminster over the weekend.
Approached by The Yorkshire Post after a surprise appearance in Parliament on Saturday – as votes on Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal were due to take place – Mr O’Mara refused to respond.
Mr O’Mara was asked why he had not been in Parliament since April, whether he was voting today, and whether he planned to return to Parliament or resign.
He was also asked whether he thought his constituents would be pleased he had travelled to Parliament.
But Mr O’Mara repeatedly refused to answer and said he had been “hounded” by the Press, before threatening to call the police if he was questioned further.
However, a man with him – believed to be his father – confirmed he would be voting before Mr O’Mara beckoned him away and told him not to speak.
Independent Mr O’Mara has not sat in Parliament since April and has had a difficult year which led to him announcing he would resign from the Commons in September, a plan he later postponed.
He has missed a number of the key votes on Brexit during 2019, including the vote in September which led to the so-called Benn Act, requiring the Prime Minister to seek a Brexit extension if faced with a No Deal situation.
In his constituency residents say he does not respond to emails, phone calls, or hold surgeries, resulting in the Liberal Democrat
candidate Laura Gordon taking on casework.
There was surprise on Saturday when a photo of him travelling to London was taken by constituent David Cross. Mr Cross said: “It must be uncomfortable for him, to be honest, and he’s looking a little sheepish.
“I was very surprised to see him.”
In July, Mr O’Mara announced he would step down after a series of problems which saw him suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party and then resign from the party.
But the Treasury, which administers MP resignations, later announced that he had postponed this decision.
Mr O’Mara provided one of the shocks on the night in the 2017 General Election when he ousted former Deputy Prime Minister Sir Nick Clegg from his Sheffield Hallam seat.
But the new MP’s political problems began a few months after his election when a series of sexist and homophobic online posts were uncovered which he had made when he was in his early 20s.
These included offensive remarks about pop group Girls Aloud and joking about the musician Jamie Cullum.