Sheffield Hallam MP Jared O'Mara to resign

Independent Sheffield Hallam MP Jared O'Mara has said he will resign when parliament returns from its summer recess in September.

The 37-year-old, who originally won the seat for Labour by beating former deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg in the snap general election of 2017, told local newspaper the Sheffield Star that he would quit after an earlier announcement that he would be taking time off to get help for mental health problems.

In a statement, he said he wanted to apologise to his family, friends and constituents for having "not been honest with you about the depths of my depression and self-loathing".

"When I started this job in 2017 I was a different man: a confident and passionate man that wanted to help others," the former school governor said.

"Sadly, I was unable to do that because very quickly I was bullied and mistreated in a harsh and unforgiving environment and that led me to be weak."

Mr O'Mara spent his first year as an MP dogged by controversy following the emergence of sexist and homophobic comments he made online.

He had the whip withdrawn by the Labour Party but was later readmitted with a formal warning, only to leave last year because he had been "made unfairly to feel like a criminal".

He blamed party leader Jeremy Corbyn for how he had been treated and decided to sit as an independent, and finally made his maiden speech to parliament last summer.

At the time of his resignation from Labour, he revealed he had made three suicide attempts over the furore about his previous comments - and described himself as "the first autistic MP in our history".

Earlier this week, in his announcement that he would be taking time off, he said that his mental health had deteriorated further and that he had become "unrecognisable".

It came after the dramatic resignation of his chief of staff, Gareth Arnold, who quit in a series of explosive tweets published to Mr O'Mara's Twitter account.

Mr Arnold has been asked to stay in his post until a new MP takes the Sheffield Hallam seat, with a by-election to be triggered when Mr O'Mara resigns on 3 September.

Labour has said it will "continue to provide support" to Mr O'Mara, with a spokesman adding the party "remained concerned for his welfare".

Olivia Blake, the party's candidate for the constituency, said she was determined to win the by-election.

She said: "The Labour party is ready for a by-election. Hallam needs a Labour MP who will represent and support local people and seek to reverse the damage done by almost a decade of austerity under the Tories and the Lib Dems.

"We need a Labour government that will invest in our communities in Hallam and across Sheffield and the North."