'Father Of The House' MP Knocked Cop Off Brompton Bike

MP Sir Edward Leigh has been fined for knocking a police officer off of his Brompton bicycle when opening his car door outside his home near Parliament.

The 74 year-old Conservative MP for Gainsborough inflicted serious injuries on the officer, who suffered a fractured sternum and cuts, when knocked off the bike in Horseferry Road, Westminster, last summer.

Sir Edward did not appear before Bromley Magistrates’ Court, where he was treated as someone merely in receipt of a state pension and fined £120, with £110 costs and ordered to pay a £48 victim surcharge.

He pleaded guilty online to opening the drivers’ door of his grey two-litre diesel Skoda Superb on August 6, last year so as to injure or endanger a person.

Sir Edward - full name Edward Julian Egerton Leigh - is the longest serving current MP and is bestowed with the informal title of Father of the House, having first been elected in 1983.

Prosecutor Alison Larkin told the court on Thursday: “It was 6.53pm and he opened the drivers’ door of his Skoda on Horseferry Road. Rob Amos was passing on a Brompton bicycle and he caused the door to hit the police officer.

“The door opened and it caused the officer to injure himself high up on his chest, causing a displaced fracture of his sternum, with fluid under the sternum and he suffered cuts to the top of his left hand that required stitches.”

In a lengthy hand-written explanation to the court Sir Edward claimed he was “traumatised by the incident”, asking how he could make up for it.

He told the court he was parked in a residents’ bay outside his house in
Horseferry Road and remained at the scene to assist the injured police officer.

Admitting his fault the MP stressed he had checked his mirror before opening the door, but wanted the court to know the officer was not wearing a crash helmet.

He apologised for the injuries suffered by the policeman, extending “my profound and sincere apologies to the court.”

In his financial means form Sir Edward stated his income was a state pension and the magistrates calculated the fine from those figures.

“We have taken into account he is in receipt of a pension,” announced bench  Chairwoman Susan Polydorou MBE, ordering the penalty to be paid in full within twenty-eight days. 

Sir Edward was knighted in the Queen’s 2013 Birthday Honours for “public and political service” and is former President of the Catholic Union of Great Britain.

Though London-born his family history hails from Cheshire landed gentry and he is a former Inner Temple barrister. 

A Thatcherite, Sir Edward he has aligned himself with the “Common sense Group” of Conservatives Parliamentarians and he is also member of the Privy Council.

The father-of-six was privately-educated at Berkshire’s Oratory School and is married to Lady Mary Leigh.