Imran Ahmad Khan has said he will resign as MP for Wakefield after he was thrown out of the Conservative Party when he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. The move will trigger a by-election in the constituency.
In a statement posted to Twitter, Imran Ahmad Khan said: "While legal proceedings are ongoing, I do not believe that it would ordinarily be appropriate to resign. However, owing to long delays in the legal process, my constituents have already been without visible parliamentary representation for a year. Even in the best case scenario, anticipated legal proceedings could last many more months.
"I have therefore regrettably come to the conclusion that it is intolerable for constituents to go years without an MP who can amplify their voices in Parliament. Representing them has been the honour of my life, and they deserve better than this.
"Consequently I am resigning as MP for Wakefield and withdrawing from political life. I shall shortly write to the Parliamentary authorities to confirm this.
"I am now able to focus entirely on clearing my name. As I intend for this to be my only statement, I would like to apologise to my family and community for the humiliation this has caused them.
"Questions surrounding sexuality in my community are not trivial, and learning from the press about my orientation, drinking, and past behaviour before I became an MP has not been easy."
Khan, 48, was elected as the MP for Wakefield in West Yorkshire in the December 2019 general election. When Khan was found guilty on Monday, the judge, Mr Justice Baker, said he would sentence him at a date to be fixed.
Khan would have been thrown out of the House of Commons if he was handed a prison sentence of more than a year, or otherwise could have been subject to a petition to oust him in the recall process.
