A Labour MP has been suspended after appearing to repeatedly hit a constituent on a night out.

Mike Amesbury had the whip removed and his Labour membership revoked after CCTV footage appeared to show him knock a man to the ground and hit him several times.

There were immediate calls for a by-election in Mr Amesbury’s Cheshire constituency, while he risked accusations of hypocrisy because he previously demanded tough sentences for rioters and people who assaulted shop staff.

A Conservative Party spokesman said Mr Amesbury had “questions to answer about his actions”, and it was right the matter was “thoroughly investigated”.

Reform UK went further, calling for the MP to “do the honourable thing and resign immediately” so a by-election could be held in his seat.

A party spokesman described the CCTV footage as “damning”, adding: “No matter what verbal exchanges happened before, it’s never acceptable for anyone to resort to violence to solve a dispute, let alone a sitting member of Parliament.

“It’s quite clear that the people of Runcorn and Helsby deserve far better than this.”

Mr Amesbury’s suspension came hours after footage of the alleged attack was released online.

Labour initially claimed that the alleged assault, which happened in the early hours of Saturday morning, was a “matter for the police”.

But the party changed course amid mounting calls for Mr Amesbury, 55, to be suspended on Sunday, with Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, claiming a refusal to act would be an example of “two-tier justice”.

Cheshire police confirmed on Sunday evening that a 55-year-old man had been “voluntarily interviewed under caution” in relation to the incident and released pending further enquiries.

The incident threatens a fresh headache for Sir Keir Starmer, who has been fiercely critical of people who take violence onto the streets.

The former director of public prosecutions was scathing about the riots over the summer, which he described as “intolerable”, vowing to do “whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice”.

Mr Amesbury himself has repeatedly demanded tough sentences for violent crime. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, in August, he said “thugs and criminals” involved in the Southport riots should expect up to a decade in prison.

He also led a debate on retail workers being assaulted in 2020, saying: “Anyone who is assaulted deserves to be protected by the law…

“What is more, despite ample evidence, some cases are not being prosecuted, even when there is clear video footage of an assault.”

Last year, the MP called for Dominic Raab to be sacked from the Cabinet for bullying over allegations that included throwing tomatoes across a room.

On Sunday afternoon, a Labour Party spokesman said: “Mike Amesbury MP has been assisting Cheshire police with their inquiries following an incident on Friday night.

“As these inquiries are now ongoing, the Labour Party has administratively suspended Mr Amesbury’s membership of the Labour Party pending an investigation.”

CCTV obtained by MailOnline appeared to show Mr Amesbury knocking a man down with a single punch before hitting him repeatedly as he crouched on the ground.

In a separate video shared on social media on Saturday, he appeared to point his finger at the man and say: “You won’t ever threaten me again, will you?”

In response to that footage, the MP claimed he was “threatened on the street” following a night out with friends in his constituency.

He said he would “co-operate with any inquiries” but was “determined to remain an open and accessible MP for our community”.

In a statement on Saturday, he said: “Last night, I was involved in an incident that took place after I felt threatened on the street following an evening out with friends.

“This morning, I contacted Cheshire police myself to report what happened during the incident.

“I will not be making further public comment but will, of course, co-operate with any inquiries if required by Cheshire police.

“I remain fully committed to working hard for the people of Runcorn and Helsby, and am determined to remain an open and accessible MP for our community.”

In a round of interviews on Sunday morning, Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, said the initial footage circulating on social media was a “matter for the police”.

Asked whether the Labour Party was investigating, she told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “Mike Amesbury, who’s the MP in question, has gone forward to the police.

“He is co-operating with any investigation they would want to take forward. It is a matter for the police and we want to allow them to do that work.”

But the Labour Party came under increasing pressure to take action as the day went on, with the CCTV footage that emerged on Sunday afternoon triggering a fierce backlash from MPs.

Mr Tice, the Reform MP, told The Telegraph that a failure to suspend Mr Amesbury would be an example of “two-tier justice”, in an apparent reference to Sir Keir’s response to the far-Rights riots and counter-protests over the summer.

Greg Smith, the Tory MP for Mid Buckinghamshire, said: “If this was a Conservative MP, there would be howls of outrage calling for immediate whip withdrawal. Needs to be the same for Labour.”

Dehenna Davison, the former Tory MP whose father was killed by a single punch when she was 13, said: “If I was leading a party and one of my MPs did this, they would already be suspended.

“It’s important the police investigation is carried out but Labour need to think about the example their MPs set.”

In a separate statement on X, Ms Davison, who campaigns to raise awareness of the dangers one punch can cause, said: “My own dad died instantly from a single punch, and we have worked with countless families who have lost loved ones through these mindless acts.

“A split-second decision can end and ruin lives.

“Such violence – whatever the background to the altercation – is never and should never be justified. People in positions of responsibility always need to remember that their actions set an example.

“In democracies, we settle disputes with words, not with violence. Thuggish, violent behaviour is not the example any MP should be setting.”

Robert Jenrick, the Tory leadership candidate, also commented on the incident, writing on X: “Labour’s promised to ‘smash the gangs’. Looks like they’re now smashing their constituents instead.”

Within hours of the CCTV footage emerging, Labour confirmed it had administratively suspended Mr Amesbury from the party, pending an investigation.

This has the effect of removing the whip in the House of Commons, meaning he will sit an as independent MP while inquiries are carried out.

A spokesman for Cheshire police said: “A 55-year-old man has been voluntarily interviewed under caution by police in relation to this incident. He has since been released pending further enquiries.”

A burst pipe is being blamed for spraying a Moscow suburb with filthy water.

Ukrainian observers mockingly claimed that the city’s sewage system had burst, but Russian sources said the more likely cause was damage to a high-pressure water pipe.

Video footage showed an enormous plume of dirty water gushing from a pipe by the side of what appeared to be a construction site for new apartment blocks. The brown-yellow jet was propelled the height of a 10-storey building.

Pro-Ukraine commentators alleged that cars and buildings in the area had been sprayed with  human waste.

“A ‘fountain’ the height of a residential building is seen in one of Moscow’s districts. A s–tshow, literally!” said Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry and a popular pro-Ukraine commentator.

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has drained Russia of cash, and Russians have complained that essential infrastructure, mainly hot water systems and lifts in high-rise buildings, are now only working sporadically.

But reliable Moscow-based Telegram channels reported that instead of a burst sewage system, the dirty water was likely to have been created by high-pressure water being forced through a gas pipeline.

The Watch Out, Moscow channel cited eyewitnesses as saying that they had heard a pop shortly before the fountain of dirty water shot up. In an update it said a gas pipe cleaning technique used by Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, had forced the plume of water into the air.

“Regional Gazprom told us that this is how air is purged for a new section of the gas pipeline. The situation is normal and is under the control of specialists,” it added.

In September, a sewage pipe in the south Chinese city of Nanning sent human waste 10 metres into the air, covering passing drivers and motorcyclists.

After months of rallies, interviews, speeches and town hall events, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will be anxiously following every development on election night.

One key moment will take place at 5pm ET, when the networks release the early results of the exit poll.

The survey will not provide an instant answer on the election winner, and its numbers will be tweaked throughout the night as more data from polling places across the US comes in.

But it could provide early indications on which campaign has managed to turn out their supporters to the polls, and who is falling short or over-performing with key voter groups.

What is an exit poll?

An exit poll is a survey that establishes how voters have voted in an election and their reasons for doing so.

For a presidential election, the exit poll has three parts that take account of the various ways that voters may choose to cast their ballot.

Those who vote in-person in the weeks leading up to the election – known as “early voting” – are sampled at hundreds of polling locations across the country, as are those who do so on election day.

The final part of the poll targets voters who vote early or by mail, who are contacted by phone call, email, or text.

Voters are typically asked 20 questions on who they have voted for, demographic factors including age, gender, and race, and the reasons for the way they voted.

News organisations can start reporting results from the exit poll after the embargo period ends at 5pm ET on election day.

It can only forecast a winner in a race if all the polls have closed in the state, and even then it has to be a state where the margins of victory are sufficiently large.

How accurate are exit polls?

Election-watchers should be sceptical of the first exit poll results when they are released at 5pm ET.

These results will be adjusted several times over the course of the night because polling locations are still open. Those who have been surveyed earlier in the day tend not to be representative of the wider electorate.

For instance, those who cast their ballots earlier in the day tend to be older than the average voter. Republicans have an edge among those aged over 50 years old.

As the night goes on and more voters are added to the sample, the exit polls move closer to the final result.

Even then, the polls go through modelling that can dramatically alter their final conclusions.

The 2016 exit poll made headlines when it suggested that Donald Trump had won the support of the majority of white women.

In fact, when reviewed by the Pew Research Centre, it was 47 per cent of white women who supported Trump – cutting the initial figure by six percentage points.

Above Nairobi’s chaotic traffic junctions, the recently opened 17-mile express way funded by China is virtually empty.

Estimated to have cost around half a billion pounds, it will only return to Kenyan hands when that dizzying sum has been fully paid off in tolls of £3 a journey or less.

For the foreseeable future, the toll road, too expensive for many, looms large over congested streets as a perfect symbol of the country’s debilitating debt.

While China and international bodies like the IMF and World Bank shouldered much of the blame during recent violent protests in Nairobi, campaigners say private banks that own bonds issued by the Kenyan government are also a significant barrier to progress.

Of Kenya’s external debt payments between 2023 and 2025, almost half are to private creditors, primarily bondholders, demanding higher interest and quicker returns.

This is one of the main reasons why Kenya is spending four times more servicing external debts – £27.7 billion at the end of 2022 – than it does on healthcare and education.

According to figures in its latest Public Debt Register seen by The Telegraph, American banks AllianceBernstein and BlackRock between them possess $582m (£450m) of Kenyan government debt.

London-headquartered institutions also appeared on a lengthy list of private creditors in a 2021 report. For example, HSBC holds $60m (46.3m), while international investment group Aberdeen Asset Management owns $37.2m (£28.8m) in bond debt. Legal and General has $30m, while PGIM has $18m.

Smaller British debt owners include Investec Asset Management, Ashmore Investment Management, Colchester Global Investments and First International Advisors.

Added together, UK-based bondholders account for $210m (£161m) of Kenyan debt, around 3 per cent of total borrowing through bonds.

Other significant bondholders include pensions giant Fidelity Investments and the US bank JP Morgan.

For a recent report called Between Life and Debt, Christian Aid calculated that between the start of last year and the end of 2025, the nation will have to repay a total of £4.4 billion to its private creditors. This is nearly three times what it is scheduled to give back to international bodies like the World Bank, even though private lenders represent only a quarter of the total Kenya owes.

Interest payments to commercial  lenders are often four times higher than to the multilateral donors, and the loans have the shortest maturities.

Across the continent, 32 out of 54  African countries spend more on debt than healthcare.

Working with the European Network on Debt and Development, Christian Aid also ascertained that the total being paid to private creditors by all African countries is around £36.3 billion, just under half of the total.

It comes as a new World Bank report shows that the world’s 26 poorest countries, which are home to 40 per cent of its poorest people, are more in debt than at any time since 2006.

In the countries analysed, which have annual per-capita incomes of less than £884, the average debt-to-GDP ratio is 72 per cent, an 18-year high.

The majority are in sub-Saharan Africa, but the list also includes Afghanistan and Yemen.

Meanwhile, recent analysis by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) shows that 58 of the world’s poorest countries which are most vulnerable to climate change are spending more than twice as much to service their debts as they receive in aid to fight the crisis.

Much of Kenya’s debt to private institutions comes from fixed income securities issued by the government called Eurobonds, which are needed just to pay off previous outstanding loans (These are not related to the Euro currency but are simply a type of bond issued in a currency different to that of the country in which it is issued).

Eurobonds are often the only option that struggling African governments have.

In February, Kenya announced a new £1.16 billion Eurobond issue to be written off by 2031, the proceeds of which “will fund the offer to buy Kenya’s existing $2 billion Eurobonds” due to amortise this year.

If Kenya stopped paying back the creditors and tried to restructure its debts, the banks could sue them in London courts, as English law governs all of Kenya’s foreign currency bonds.

The banks effectively retain a choke hold over African economies, locking them into a never-ending cycle of taking out fresh loans to repay existing ones.

‘Like a loan shark’

Campaigners accuse the financial houses involved of behaving like unscrupulous back street lenders.

Jennifer Larbie, one of the Christian Aid report authors, said that the level of debt is so high that African governments have no choice but to take out new loans at impossible repayment rates to avoid defaulting.

“It’s like a loan shark preying on people who don’t have the money,” she explained. “If you’ve only got the option of going to the loan shark you know you will get the worst interest rate.

“That is the system that is being applied to African countries time and time again; this has been going on for decades.

“The interest rates that private creditors are charging go way above and beyond what is being charged by China, the IMF and other multilateral institutions. Our report is really clear: when you look at interest rates alone, it is far better for the Kenyan government to borrow from the IMF and the World Bank than from private creditors.”

At 6.2 per cent, private creditor average repayment rates are almost double those of Chinese lenders (3.2 per cent), and far higher than multilateral (1 per cent) and bilateral (1.3 per cent) lenders.

Earlier this year bondholders including BlackRock agreed a debt restructuring deal for Zambia after it declared bankruptcy in 2020.

The deal could reduce the government’s repayments by up to £1.1 billion and spread future payments over a much longer time frame, but it took four years to negotiate.

The delays were allegedly caused by private creditors holding out for an agreement which delivers better profits.

Even after debt relief measures, Zambia will still pay two-thirds of its budget on debt servicing between 2024 and 2026.

A previous investigation by another aid agency, the Catholic charity Cafod, claimed that BlackRock, which is also the largest private creditor to Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and Senegal, actively obstructs debt relief schemes.

Dario Kenner, Cafod’s policy lead on debt, said that the refusal of “cowboy lenders” to cancel or restructure debt was “shameful”.

The IMF and World Bank are very open about how their loans should be paid back, often by encouraging governments to increase consumer taxes like VAT.

By contrast, repayment schemes for Eurobonds are deliberately opaque, campaigners say.

The struggle is further compounded by banks’ insistence on being repaid in US dollars, a currency which is always stronger than that of the indebted country.

“Some of the debt is wrapped up in more debt and that’s wrapped up in Eurobonds and other financial packages,” continued Ms Larbie, Christian Aid’s head of campaigns.

“So, it’s difficult to get a line-by-line account of how much debt is owed to one individual private company account. That’s very deliberate. What it allows private creditors to do is have real leverage over governments, because we’re not able to truly understand the scale of what is owned by individual companies.”

UNAIDS, the global programme on HIV response, recently stated that the combination of growing debt payments and spending cuts in IMF agreements could see the infection rate increase in sub-Saharan Africa after reducing by 56 per cent since 2010.

“When countries cannot effectively look after the health care needs of their people because of debt payments, global health security is put at risk,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima.

“Public debt needs to be urgently reduced, and domestic resource mobilisation strengthened to enable the fiscal space to fully fund the global HIV response and end Aids.”

Last year, a report from the House of Commons International Development Committee warned of the “debt crisis”.

At the time Labour MP Sarah Champion, the committee chair, said less-developed nations “face impossible trade-offs between servicing soaring debt and funding basic public services”.

For ordinary Africans unable to access basic healthcare, the solution lies faraway, in the chrome and glass office buildings of the City of London and Wall St where Africa’s bondholders decide how their debts will be repaid.

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security

A manhunt has been launched in Austria after a mayor was shot dead in an apparent dispute over hunting permits.

Franz Hofer, the mayor of Kirchberg ob der Donau, was killed in a field near the village of Altenfelden, in Austria’s rural Muhlviertel region, on Monday afternoon.

A second man was shot dead a short while later, an Austrian police spokesman said.

Police have named the suspected gunman as Roland Drexler, 56, who is understood to be a hunter, and is described as extremely dangerous.

An Austrian police special forces unit has been drafted in to assist with the manhunt, as well as two helicopters and an armoured vehicle.

Both Mr Hofer and the second victim were district hunting directors, a local newspaper reported. 

Residents in Kirchberg barricaded themselves in their homes after reports of the killings circulated.

Krone, a leading Austrian newspaper, said the attack was linked to a long-running local dispute over hunting rights.

Police have issued a wanted poster showing the suspect with a shaved head, grey goatee and glasses.

“He was a difficult person,” an unidentified hunter told Krone, claiming the suspect frequently clashed with local authorities over hunting rules.

The hunting dispute had dragged on for several years, Krone reported.

Herbert Sieghartsleitner, a district hunting director, said: “I am deeply shocked by these events. I personally knew Franz Hofer very well. It is unimaginable, what has happened.”

Karl Nehammer, the Austrian chancellor, is said to have been shocked by the attack.

Mr Hofer was a member of Austria’s centre-Right ÖVP party, which narrowly lost to the hard-Right FPÖ in elections on Sept 30.

“It is madness,” added Florian Hiegelsberger, a senior Austrian official from the ÖVP.