A Conservative MP who was discovered responsible of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy has resigned from parliament, three weeks after being convicted.
Imran Ahmad Khan, who was MP for Wakefield in west Yorkshire, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court docket three weeks in the past however didn't full the resignation formalities till final week, which means he acquired his full taxpayer-funded wage for final month.
He has now been appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Three A whole bunch of Chiltern by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, one of many formal mechanisms for an MP to stop the Commons.
Khan had been resisting calls to resign till conceding it will be it “insupportable” for voters within the West Yorkshire constituency to have muted illustration whereas he appeals the conviction.
He mentioned the transfer would permit him to “focus solely on clearing my identify”.
Jurors within the case heard how he pressured the teenager to drink gin and tonic, dragged him upstairs, pushed him on to a mattress and requested him to observe pornography earlier than the assault at a home in Staffordshire in January 2008.
His resignation means there will probably be a by-election in his seat, which he gained from Labour’s Mary Creagh with a majority of three,358.
His departure will arrange a difficult by-election for each Boris Johnson and Labour chief Keir Starmer.
Wakefield was one of many conventional Labour “crimson wall” heartlands seats seized by the Tories within the 2019 normal election.
Johnson will wrestle to retain the three,358 majority after going through months of scandalous partygate tales about lockdown gatherings in in Downing Avenue for which he has been personally fined.
However Labour will probably be beneath stress to win again the seat that had been Labour for the reason that Thirties as Starmer tries to show to voters the get together has reworked since he took over from Jeremy Corbyn.
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