Khan, who represented Wakefield in West Yorkshire, has resisted calls to resign since being ousted from the Conservative Party when he was sentenced Monday. However, he said it was “unacceptable” for voters in the constituency to be deprived of representation while appealing, and said his resignation would allow him to “focus entirely on clearing my name”. Boris Johnson now faces a potentially challenging Wakefield by-election. Image: Khan said he would appeal the court ruling In a statement posted on Twitter, Kahn said: “While legal proceedings are ongoing, I do not think it would be appropriate for me to resign. “However, due to long delays in the legal process, my voters are already without visible parliamentary representation for a year. Even at best, the expected legal proceedings could take many more months. “Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that it is unacceptable for voters to spend years without a Member of Parliament who can strengthen their voice in Parliament.” He said his voters “deserve something better than that” and therefore resigned as a Wakefield MP and “retired from politics”. The Labor Party owned Wakefield from the 1930s until Khan’s victory in the 2019 general election. His resignation poses a tough battle for the Tories, as the prime minister struggles to remain a leader after being fined for violating his own coronation lockdown laws. Joe Pike Political correspondent @joepike The Labor Party has known for months that a crucial midterm election battle could come to the fore as a result of the trial of Imran Ahmad Khan, and they were preparing for it behind the scenes. With Khan’s resignation as MP, the fight for the marginal red Wakefield wall seat is underway. It will be a key test for Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, offering the possibility of a Labor victory in the Tories by-elections in a decade. The constituency supported Brexit by 63%. That was one reason why Labor MP Mary Creagh lost her seat in 2019 – for the first time in the hands of the Conservatives since the 1930s. Mrs Creagh is not expected to return to the city, but it is still understood that she wishes to return to Westminster. Sources in the Labor Party are optimistic about their chances of winning. Without the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn or Brexit, and with a cost-of-life crisis, they argue that Wakefield can be defeated. The Conservatives will hope that the new infrastructure of their campaign and investment in the region will strengthen their effort. However, they also face difficult questions about the warnings made by Khan’s victim before the 2019 elections, which seem to have been ignored. Khan was selected to run for the West Yorkshire Tories only after the original candidate left due to the appearance of racist and sexist posts on Facebook. During the Southwark Crown Court trial, jurors heard that Khan forced a 15-year-old boy to drink gin and tonic at a party before dragging the teenager upstairs, pushing him to a bed and asking him to watch pornography before the attack. . The victim, now 29, said Khan touched his legs and feet and the lawmaker reached “a hair” away from his private individuals as he tried to sleep on a bunk bed. He ran to his parents and the police reported it at that time, but no further action was taken because the young man did not want to make a formal complaint. However, he told jurors that “everything came back” when Khan was a Conservative in the December 2019 general election. He said he did not “take it too seriously” when he made the claim in the Conservative Party’s press office a few days before Khan was elected to Wakefield MP in the December 2019 general election. He made the complaint to police a few days after Khan helped Mr. Johnson win a large majority of the Commons by conquering Wakefield. Khan was found guilty by a court after five hours of deliberations. Janes Solicitors, the company representing Khan, said she “maintains his innocence” and “will appeal as soon as possible”.
