Kate Osamor has resigned as shadow international development secretary following a report she verbally abused a journalist from The Times and threw a bucket of water over him.
The Labour politician and Edmonton MP had been accused of misleading the public after she employed her son in her parliamentary office despite knowing he had been convicted for drug offences.
Ishmael Osamor, 29, was caught with £2,500 worth of drugs at Bestival in 2017.
The Labour Party had previously stated she knew nothing about her son’s case until after he was sentenced in October but The Times reports she in fact wrote to the judge during the trial asking for leniency.
The Times report of the revelations contained an account of what happened when the paper tried to get comment from Osamor on Friday. It read:
“At her home last night Ms Osamor told reporter for The Times, who asked for her response to the story, that she “should have come down here and with a bat and smashed your face in”. She told him the “fuck off”, threw a bucket of water at him and called police after accusing him of stalking her.”
In a statement, Osamor said: “I am resigning my position as Shadow International Development Secretary to concentrate on supporting my family through the difficult time we have been experiencing.
“I remain fully committed to our programme or creating a society that works for the many, not the privileged few, and will continue to campaign for this from the back benches.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, said in a statement he had accepted Osamor’s resignation, adding: “I... would like to thank her for work as our Shadow Secretary of State for International Development.”
He made no mention of the bucket of water.
Ishamel Osamor pleaded guilty at Bournemouth Crown Court to four counts of possession with intent to supply cocaine, MDMA, ketamine and cannabis.
On October 19 he was sentenced to a two-year community order with 200 hours of unpaid work and up to 20 rehabilitation activity days and ordered to pay £400 prosecution costs.
The Times reported that the prosecution accepted that he was looking after the drugs for friends and not selling them.
Following his conviction, he stood down as a Labour councillor in the London borough of Haringey.
However Osamor has faced questions as to why she continues to employ him in her parliamentary office in the House of Commons.
According to the Register of Interests of Members’ Secretaries and Research Assistants, he is listed as one of five staff members working for her at Westminster.
Osamor was first elected as MP for Edmonton in the 2015 general election and was one of 36 Labour members to nominate Corbyn in the leadership contest following Ed Miliband’s resignation.
In January 2016 she was made shadow women and equalities minister and the following June was promoted to shadow international development secretary after dozens of frontbenchers resigned in protest at Corbyn’s leadership.
Earlier in the day, before her altercation with The Times reporter, she tweeted she had been out speaking to residents in her constituency about “recent violent incidents”.