Labour MP said he 'feared the worst' during angry confrontation with constituent which left him thinking of murdered parliamentary colleagues including Jo Cox

A senior Labour MP said he 'feared the worst' and thought of murdered parliamentary colleagues including Jo Cox as he was confronted by an angry constituent in the street, a court heard.

Former minister Liam Byrne described coming 'under attack' during an outdoor surgery in his constituency.

A court heard Kevin Sullivan, 52, overturned the Labour Party gazebo and ranted at Mr Byrne and his colleagues about mosques and grooming gangs during the confrontation last September.

The Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North MP said scaffolder Sullivan was 'tense and aggressive' at the 'community gazebo surgery' that Mr Byrne was hosting.

He told Walsall Magistrates' Court: 'We were obviously under attack as a team. We feared an attack, we were braced for an attack.

'Jo Cox was my friend, David Amess was my friend and Stephen Timms is a close friend.

'Two of those friends lost their lives in their constituencies in the course of their duty, and Mr Timms was very seriously injured.

'You can't help but fear the worst. I was fearing the worst.'

Sullivan was found guilty of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or disorderly behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress after a trial lasting less than two hours. 

Following the case, Mr Byrne told the Daily Mail that 'disagreement is fundamental to a healthy democracy' but added: 'We just can’t have that cross the line into thuggish behaviour on the streets when democratically elected people are just trying to do their best, campaigning to improve the area and help people.'

The court heard on Thursday that the incident unfolded in the Kitts Green district of Birmingham.

Mr Byrne and two colleagues were packing away their equipment at the end of the event, where the MP had set up a gazebo so constituents could meet him and discuss matters of concern. 

Sullivan then approached them and asked the MP whether a nearby parked Range Rover belonged to him. 

Mr Byrne, the chair of the Commons business and trade committee, told the court: 'He was assertive but neutral. I said it was not my vehicle, to which he replied something to the effect of "Well, it will be gone in a few minutes".'

Mr Byrne said as his group continued packing up, he saw Sullivan 'grabbing one of the legs of the gazebo, basically upending it, throwing it into the road and walking off'.

The 56-year-old MP said he ran towards the 'expensive' gazebo and 'righted it', at which point Sullivan crossed back over the road towards him.

He said: 'You have two thoughts – firstly you need to rescue the equipment, secondly you are anxious about what will happen next, could it become a violent incident?

'He was demanding in an aggressive tone what we were doing in the area. I said we were trying to help people and to help get new £20million funding for the area.

'Mr Sullivan asked what is that money for? I said among other things it was to fix the parking problems.

'He said, "Oh you mean mosque parking?" I didn't answer. Then he said, "Get out of our area and take your grooming gangs with you".

'I took it to mean there was a racialised element to his hostility and he was aiming to intimidate us into stopping what we were doing.'

Mr Byrne said he and his colleagues were left 'deeply shaken' but relieved the situation had not escalated.

'In 22 years we have never had an incident like this,' he added.

The court heard Parliamentary security services were alerted to the incident and Mr Byrne now needs two security officers with him at all surgeries.

Under cross-examination from Sullivan, who represented himself, the MP accepted he had not been sworn at.

But he said: 'Your demeanour felt threatening. It was the aggressive manner in which you presented yourself, plus you upended our gazebo.

'In our society it's completely unacceptable for people to pick up other people's property and throw it. We felt that you were about to attack us.'

Giving evidence, Sullivan said he turned the gazebo upside down because it had been 'negligently' left unattended and unsecured.

He said: 'Mr Byrne came storming towards me saying, "What gives you the right to behave like that in public?"

'I said, "What gives you the right to come here after all your promises turned to lies?" Then I said, "Take your grooming gangs and sling it".

'I was not aggressive in any way. He is a public servant and has to expect some kind of criticism.'

Asked why he took a dislike to Mr Byrne, Sullivan replied: 'I didn't take a dislike to Mr Byrne. I took a dislike to the Labour Party's agenda.

'I don't want to say he is a liar but he is a politician. He has got to expect some criticism.'

But in convicting Sullivan, of Kitts Green, Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram said he found Mr Byrne to be a 'reliable' witness.

He told the defendant: 'The fact is it was an act that was disorderly. You had no right to touch their gazebo. It's not yours. You had no right to tip it over, push it over.

'Judges and magistrates don't do politics. We are not here to decide political issues. I'm only here on the niceties of the law and whether you committed an offence

'What you did caused him to be shaken. He gave examples of other MPs and how he felt in the context of what happened to people he described as friends.'

Judge Ikram found Sullivan had no case to answer to a second identical charge relating to Mr Byrne's colleague Craig Rogers.

Sullivan was released on conditional bail and will be sentenced at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on November 26.

Mr Byrne entered parliament after winning a tightly contested by-election in July 2004. He had previously worked as a management consultant and also co-founded a tech business.

In 2010, as outgoing chief secretary to the Treasury under Gordon Brown, Mr Byrne famously left a note for his coalition successor David Laws saying: 'I'm afraid there is no money. Good luck!'

The note was later published by Mr Laws and was used as a stick to beat Labour over its handling of the economy by political opponents. It was also brandished by Prime Minister David Cameron as evidence of the party's financial irresponsibility throughout the 2015 general election campaign.

Writing in The Observer three days after the Tories won an unexpected majority at that election, Mr Byrne admitted he had 'burnt with shame' over the note, which he said had hampered his party's election campaign.

Labour MP Jo Cox was killed by a far-Right extremist in 2016, while Conservative Sir David Amess was fatally stabbed in 2021 at a constituency event by an attacker inspired by the Islamic State group.

Sir Stephen Timms, then Labour MP for East Ham, survived being stabbed by an Islamic extremist at a constituency surgery in 2010 over his backing of the Iraq war.