A Labour MP has revealed he attempted suicide three times after a string of homophobic and misogynistic comments he had made online in his 20s resurfaced.



Jared O’Mara, the MP for Sheffield Hallam, was suspended by Labour last year after the tweets came to light. After an investigation, the party reinstated him this month.

O’Mara’s shock victory over the former deputy prime minister and then leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, was one of the most memorable moments of the 2017 general election. But he had not yet given his maiden speech in the Commons when the controversy erupted.



The past comments included inviting the band Girls Aloud to an orgy and joking about the musician Jamie Cullum being “sodomised to death”.



On Monday he apologised for his behaviour, saying he was “ashamed of the man I was”. He said the experience had led him to develop an anxiety disorder.

In an interview with ITV, O’Mara said: “I will not mince my words, I have made three attempts on my life. I was harassed and hounded by the press, I was scared to go home. I was just a mess, I was shaking, I was crying and that lasted for weeks.



“I have a lot of apologising to do and I will continue in that vein, but I believe when somebody makes mistakes and they ask for an apology there has got to be a stage where they try and forgive them. That’s what I’m asking for from my constituents, from the country. I’m asking for forgiveness.



“I want people to be open about issues around mental health and not be ashamed about it and to talk to people. The best thing that I’ve done this past year is learn to talk to my mum. I love my mum … It’s really changed me because I can be myself now finally.”

In an apologetic statement issued through the party, he said he had grown up “in an era when lad culture and prejudicial language were normalised”, and he had repeated slurs that had been levelled at him “as a way of deflecting from my own low self-esteem and depression”.



O’Mara, who has cerebral palsy, was readmitted to Labour after the disputes panel on the party’s ruling national executive committee found that his case did not meet the threshold required for it to be referred for expulsion. Instead the panel ordered the MP to undergo mandatory training.

• In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org

