UK Conservative MP charged with sexual assault

LONDON — A U.K. Conservative MP will face trial accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008.

Imran Ahmad Khan, 47, the MP for Wakefield, West Yorkshire, is alleged to have groped the teenager in Staffordshire.

Ahmad Khan, who was elected at the 2019 general election, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday by video-link and entered a plea of not guilty.

He can be named after reporting restrictions were lifted on Friday.

Ahmad Khan faces a single count of sexual assault against the teenager in 2008. The case has been referred to the Old Bailey after it was deemed not suitable for trial in the magistrates’ court.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Ahmad Khan said: “It is true that an accusation has been made against me. May I make it clear from the outset that the allegation, which is from over 13 years ago, is denied in the strongest terms.”

“This matter is deeply distressing to me and I of course, take it extremely seriously. To be accused of doing something I did not do is shocking, destabilising, and traumatic. I am innocent.”

“Those, like me, who are falsely accused of such actions are in the difficult position of having to endure damaging and painful speculation until the case is concluded. I ask for privacy as I work to clear my name.”

A spokesperson for the Whips Office said the Tory whip had been suspended from Ahmad Khan. A party official added that the MP has not been on parliamentary estate since the charge was brought and will not return while the case is ongoing.

He won the traditional Labour seat of Wakefield in 2019, and before that worked for the United Nations as a special assistant for political affairs in Mogadishu.