A regional daily has demanded an MP gives a “proper explanation” to constituents over why he is not turning up to work after an investigation by the newspaper.

Yorkshire Post features writer Chris Burn visited the constituency office of Sheffield Hallam MP Jared O’Mara, who has not been be attending Parliament on medical advice since December – but there was no sign of the Labour politician.

Office manager Maggie Flude told Chris Mr O’Mara did come into the office and was contactable via email, but she would not say when he was last in the office or how regularly he turns up.

She insisted he was continuing to work “very hard” for constituents despite his absence from Westminster and from his own constituency office.

The Labour MP, who unseated former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg at the 2017 General Election, came under fire in October over misogynist, homophobic and racist comments made in the past – with a Post editorial at the time urging him to “explain himself” or “do himself, his party and his city a favour by resigning”.

The Post once again urged Mr O’Mara to explain himself in an editorial accompanying Chris’s feature yesterday.

Chris told HTFP: “Deciding to cover this story was clearly a sensitive issue, given that Mr O’Mara said in December that he would be limiting his duties, including attending Parliament, on medical advice.

“However, the same statement issued by his office stressed that Mr O’Mara was still ‘working very hard to serve his constituents in Sheffield Hallam, including with casework inquiries’.

“I wouldn’t have pursued the story if he had been signed off work entirely but I believed it was in the public interest to investigate the claim he was still working ‘very hard’ on local issues.”

During his visit to the office, Chris asked the office if there was any example she could give him of Mr O’Mara actively helping a constituent, to which she responded: “No, I can’t”.

Chris added: “I subsequently made several attempts to contact Mr O’Mara by email and phone over the course of several days, setting out in detail what had been said by his office manager and asking him to answer a series of questions about his attendance at work and whether he was properly representing the people of Sheffield Hallam. He didn’t respond.

“The publication of the story has led to renewed calls locally for Mr O’Mara to resign and for a by-election to be held. Personally, I certainly think Mr O’Mara owes the people of Sheffield Hallam a fuller explanation about precisely what he is doing on their behalf.

“I still hope to speak to him if he is willing to do so and have emailed him again this morning to ask for his side of the story.”

At the time of the Post’s suggestion in October that Mr O’Mara should resign, its Johnston Press sister daily The Star, Sheffield, took an opposing stance – issuing a front page plea for him to remain in his role and “be a positive force for the city.”