Yorkshire MP Louise Haigh says the Conservatives have “serious questions” to answer about Khan, who is still serving as MP weeks after being convicted of sexually assaulting a teenager in 2008, and despite promising to offer his resignation.
During the trial, Khan’s victim told the jury that he told the party’s headquarters about the attack days before the 2019 election, but that it was not “taken very seriously.”
In that vote, the Conservatives took up numerous formerly Labor seats, such as Wakefield, through the so-called ‘Red Wall’.
Ms Haigh has now written to Tory party co-chair Oliver Dowden, asking him to provide any records the party has of that conversation and to clarify what action was taken with the officials who answered the phone call.
In the letter, seen by The Yorkshire Post, Sheffield Heeley MP and Shadow Transport Secretary Mrs Hague said: “It is frankly appalling that no action has been taken following a call to your headquarters that details first-hand reports of sexual assault against a child.
“Victims deserve answers, and the people of Wakefield deserve to know how this man could have been allowed to serve as a deputy.”
The note also asked Dowden to reveal whether police were called after the victim’s call to Conservatives, and when he or his predecessors were “first made aware of reports that Imran Ahmad Khan had sexually assaulted child”. There was also a question about what research the Tories will carry out on future candidates, including in the upcoming Wakefield by-election.
“To rebuild trust and avoid the impression of a cover-up, it is vital that these questions are answered without delay,” said Ms Haigh.
Khan was found guilty of sexual assault earlier this month, following a trial at Southwark Crown Court in London.
The court heard how he forced the teenager to drink gin and tonic, dragged him upstairs, pushed him onto a bed and asked him to look at pornography before the attack on a house in Staffordshire in January 2008.
Khan was expelled from the Conservative Party following the guilty verdict, having had the whip suspended last summer when the allegations first came to light.
He maintains his innocence and announced that he would resign on April 14, believing the move would allow him to “completely focus on clearing my name.”
Reached out for comment by The Yorkshire Post yesterday, a Conservative Party spokesman said: “We have found no record of such a complaint.”
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Source: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-04-24 23:05:47
