Disgraced Labour MP Kate Osamor apologises for ’emotional outbursts’

Disgraced Labour MP Kate Osamor has apologised for her ’emotional outbursts’ just two weeks after resigning following the revelation she threatened a journalist with a baseball bat.

Miss Osamor became the centre of a controversy recently when it was said she reacted angrily and lashed out at a reporter outside of her £700,000 North London home when a Times journalist asked for comment regarding her son’s employment in her office. 

Her son Ishmael, 29, had been found with drugs worth £2,500 at the Bestival music festival in Dorset in 2017 and was given a community sentence on October 19.

The embattled MP posted a grovelling apology on Tuesday in which she said recent events had ‘taken a toll on her health’. 

‘Recent weeks have taken their toll on my health,’ Osamor tweeted.

‘I am deeply sorry for my emotional outbursts and I am working to better manage my feelings. I ask for space and understanding so I can care for my family and get us through this difficult time.’ 

The disgraced Labour MP posted a tweet on Tuesday in which she said she was ‘working better to manage her feelings’

Kate Osamor (right) voted for Jeremy Corbyn (left) to become labour leader 

Son Ishmael worked full time in his mother’s office and lives with her in a £700,000 housing association property near Turnpike Lane in North London.

The Labour politician had defended keeping Ishmael in his £50,000-a-year job by claiming she had been unaware of his crimes at the time.

But it later emerged that she had in fact known, and had sent letters of correspondence to the judge requesting leniency.

When approached by reporters at her house, Miss Osamor, formerly Labour’s International Development spokesperson, told a journalist she ‘should have come down here with a bat and smashed your face in’, threw a bucket of water over him and called the police, according to reports.

Ishmael Osamor (left) and his MP mother Kate Osamor (right)

Kate Osamor resigned from Labour’s Shadow Cabinet hours after reports she had told the journalist to ‘f*** off’ and threatened him 

The North London MP was being challenged to answer claims she had misled the public over when she first knew of the drugs conviction against her son, whom she still employs in her Commons office.

But within barely 24 hours of the confrontation, Ms Osamor – a close supporter of the Labour leader – quit as Mr Corbyn’s Shadow International Development Secretary and Mr Corbyn was forced to interrupt a trip to Mexico, for the inauguration of the country’s new president, to confirm she was going

Her departure amounts to a personal humiliation for the Labour leader who has stood by Ms Osamor and who nominated her mother, community activist Martha Osamor, for a peerage, which she is formally due to take up this week.

The North London MP has faced questions over when she first knew of her son’s conviction and her decision to continue to employ him in her Commons office.

Labour has previously insisted she was unaware of the case until her son was sentenced in October.  

Her drug supplier son works at the Commons … mum is off to the Lords 

Despite earning £130,000 between them, Kate Osamor and her drug dealer son Ishmael live in a social housing property in North London.

Dorset Police custody picture of Ishmael Osamor

Such homes are intended for those on low incomes yet earlier this month it emerged that Osamor, paid £77,000 a year, voted against raising rent for high earners living in social housing.

In three votes in 2015 and 2016, she also blocked proposals that would have seen her pay market rent. The plans classed high earners as households where two adults earn £20,000 each or more.

Since being convicted of possessing drugs with intent to supply, her son has kept his taxpayer-funded Commons job as her communications officer. The prosecution accepted he was not selling drugs. Next week the MP’s mother, Martha, takes her place in the House of Lords as Baroness Osamor after being nominated by Jeremy Corbyn.