An MP found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy is being urged by local Tories to fulfil his promise to stand down, after it emerged that he has still not formally resigned from his Westminster seat. The family of Imran Ahmad Khan – who was expelled from the Tory party after his conviction earlier this month – have also been asked to intervene to ensure he goes through with his promise to stand down in the Wakefield seat which he won from Labour at the last election. Khan stated this month that he was planning to resign. He said his intention to appeal against his conviction had led him to “regrettably come to the conclusion that it is intolerable for constituents to go years without an MP who can amplify their voices in parliament”. MPs who want to resign have to write to the Treasury to begin the process. A date for a byelection can then be set. However, it is understood that no such letter has yet been received. Khan’s office did not respond to inquiries about when he would submit his resignation. Local Tories are sounding the alarm. Tony Homewood, a Tory councillor in Wakefield who acted as Ahmad Khan’s election agent in 2019, said he had noted Khan’s failure to trigger the resignation process with “considerable regret”. He appealed to Khan’s brothers – one of whom, Karim, is a prosecutor at the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague – to intervene. “I realise that [Karim Khan] is involved in very important work at the ICC but I implore him to intervene in this matter,” he tweeted. “I would remind everyone reading this tweet ... that the Khan family are good Wakefield people and are not responsible for the appalling behaviour of one of their number, which I can assure you they will certainly not condone. We pick our friends but we can’t pick our relatives.” The Wakefield byelection will be a serious test of whether the government retains the support in the “red wall” seats that it won from Labour at the last election. Labour had previously held the seat for 87 years. There had been rumours that former shadow chancellor Ed Balls could run for the seat, but he has since ruled himself out. Labour’s previous MP, Mary Creagh, has said she will not be standing again.
Whichever candidate the party puts forward, Labour stands a chance of winning its first seat from another party in a byelection since 2012. Dawn Shedding, who was taking her granddaughters for a walk on a bright morning in the city centre, said although she had voted for Khan in 2019, she had not been a fan. “I don’t think he did much for Wakefield but then nobody ever does,” she said. “We’re forgotten about here.” The cash-strapped Labour-held council did not attract her support, however. “There’s no investment really, nothing for the young kids to do like there used to be.” Though she plans to vote in the local election on 5 May, she has not made up her mind who to vote for, considering the parties “two bad choices”.
Local figures said that major issues with the local transport network would be an element in the byelection. It was national politics – particularly “Partygate” – that was at the forefront of people’s minds in Wakefield last week, however. “I don’t think much of Starmer but Boris has to go,” said Iain Bryant, shopping with his daughter Jess in the city centre. “I didn’t vote Conservative in the last election, but I had some sympathies for him. Nobody wants to be a prime minister during a pandemic and up until recently I thought he did quite a good job. Now with all the talk about the parties and him getting fined, that annoyed me quite a lot to be honest. I’m glad he got fined but it’s not enough.” Jess, whose grandmother died of Covid in a care home without family around, added: “It’s easy to forget that he said that line about ‘letting the bodies pile up’. It seems like such a long time ago. But for the people who lost someone during that time, you don’t forget things like that. If I was ever going to vote Conservative, which I probably wouldn’t have anyway, I certainly wouldn’t now.” • This article was amended on 24 April 2022 to clarify reference in an earlier version to Labour potentially “winning its first byelection victory since 2012”. The party has held a number of seats at byelections in the past decade but this would be its first victory in taking a seat from another party.