Another by-election looms

Parliamentary by-elections are a bit like buses...you wait for ages for a winnable one to come along and then you get three at once.

Next Thursday sees the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, where Jane Dodds is looking to overturn a Conservative majority of 8,038. Polls are suggesting she will succeed, but campaigners on the ground are reporting that it could be very close.

On 29th August the voters of Shetland will go to the polls to elect a successor to Tavish Scott, who has stood down as the islands' MSP after 20 years of service. There aren't too many Liberal Democrat safe seats around and I'm not going to be uncharacteristically complacent, but this is definitely a by-election we should win.

And the third?

A few days ago I asked what should we make of Jared O'Mara, the troubled independent MP for Sheffield Hallam. I stand by what I said: I'm concerned with the narratives that suggest Jared's mental health issues mean he should step aside so his constituents can have adequate representation. Even worse is the idea that his mental health issues should have been a bar to him standing in the first place. After all, we wouldn't say the same about an MP whose physical illness caused them to take several months off work.

Jared's problem is that he was never sufficiently prepared or supported by a party that selected him (without vetting) essentially as a paper candidate when a snap election was called in 2017. Earlier this week Mr O'Mara made a statement in which he claimed Labour didn't give him anything like enough support after winning his seat, raising the question of how we can better support people with similar health problems so they can carry out their duties as fully as possible.

Events seem to have overtaken him since then. A few days after the bizarre resignation of his chief-of-staff, Gareth Arnold, The Times has published WhatsApp messages Mr O'Mara sent to a 20-year-old former employee. The messages clearly amount to sexual harassment and Mr O'Mara has admitted he sent them. The complainant has stated that she felt ‘uncomfortable to the point at which I feel I can no longer stay silent’, which is entirely understandable given their nature. Mr O’Mara’s various health problems cannot shield him from the fact that such behaviour is unacceptable and falls short of the standards expected of any MP – and, indeed, any employer.

The Star, Sheffield’s local newspaper, has today reported that Mr O’Mara plans to resign after the summer recess. According to The Star, O’Mara has stated: “Please let everyone be assured that I will be tendering my resignation via the official Parliamentary process as soon as term restarts. I am not in any fit state to continue and nor would that be appropriate if I was. I reiterate my apology to my constituents, the people of Sheffield and the people of the UK as whole.”

He also added further explanation: “The poor attendance was due to my mental health. The jokes were jokes and I am not apologising for them...Please understand that humour is fiction and an art form. I’m not calling myself a comedian, however to be clear. My sense of humour has always been blue. And dark and satirical. I don’t even see gender. I see people as individuals. Now please respect my privacy and allow me to focus on my health rather than trying to drive me to suicide again with straw man sensationalism about my views on sex and equality.

“I will always stand up for free speech. I reiterate my apology but messages during my delusion were never sexual. Nor did I ever have any attraction to her. I was going through a delusional episode. If you must know, like many disabled people and mentally ill people, I barely have a libido. Now please everyone don’t hound me to my death and give me some space.”

I will not attempt to unravel Mr O’Mara’s statement further other than to say it is deeply concerning on several levels, not only in its defensiveness and lack of insight but also what it says about his own mental well-being at the moment. He's clearly struggling and it's more than sad that it's come to this. 

This will mean there will be a by-election later in the year – and a by-election the Liberal Democrats will have an excellent chance of winning. Laura Gordon has been working hard on the ground, going so far as to provide help to local people frustrated by an absentee MP, and is well-placed to win back the seat Nick Clegg lost two years ago. three successive by-election victories will also provide a huge boost to our party's profile, appeal and credibility.

O’Mara has a 2,125 vote majority over the Liberal Democrats, in a seat that Labour had never previously won. While there is a sizeable Conservative vote in the constituency, it looks likely to be a battle between ourselves and Labour and will surely come down to a simple question of who voters trust more. Will they trust the Liberal Democrats or the party that set Mr O’Mara up to fail?

I believe Mr O’Mara deserved better from the Labour Party, whose own lack of vetting and alleged absence of any meaningful support for the MP has served both the constituency and O’Mara himself badly. Hopefully the voters of Sheffield Hallam will now get the kind of MP they deserve, who knows the constituency and is able to provide the energy and commitment the role demands.

I have not always seen eye to eye with Mr O'Mara (not least in relation to his historic homophobic and misogynistic comments) but I would like to thank him for his openness in speaking out about his mental health struggles, which I hope has helped to strip away the stigma. I also hope he is able to get the treatment he needs and, away from the spotlight of the press, rebuild his life. I wish him well for the future.