Imran Ahmad Khan has said he has now resigned as Wakefield’s MP and will no longer be a parliamentarian from this Saturday, two and a half weeks after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
Ahmad Khan told the Guardian he had submitted his resignation on Monday and that it was effective from 30 April. That means he will be paid his salary in full for April.
The Conservative party will then choose a date for a byelection, which will probably take place in late June, after the jubilee bank holidays and local elections.
The Treasury has received his resignation letter, the Guardian understands.
Ahmad Khan, elected in 2019 as Wakefield’s first Conservative MP since 1932, announced his intention to step down in a tweet on 14 April, four days after being convicted at Southwark crown court.
He quit after the Guardian confronted him with fresh claims about propositioning a 16-year-old boy to have oral sex and go to a hotel with him and a sex worker to take cocaine and have sex.
Ahmad Khan insists he informed the parliamentary authorities straight away but that there were delays because of the Easter bank holidays and then while he sorted out HR issues with his staff.
“There is no legal procedure to resign from the house without getting a crown appointment,” he said, referring to an arcane parliamentary procedure dating back to 1624 that decrees that MPs cannot directly resign their seat. Instead, they have to apply to the Treasury to be made crown steward and bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds or crown steward and bailiff of the manor of Northstead, both non-salaried positions, until their replacement is elected.
The Treasury normally issues a statement on the day the resignation comes into force.
Ahmad Khan said he had forward-dated his resignation to Saturday because the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), which regulates and administers the pay and pensions of MPs and their staff, had told him to do so.
“Ipsa and HR have said there’s five days from when you give [your resignation] to clear out the office and so on, for logistical and practical reasons, and also for staff reasons,” he said.
But a parliamentary source said: “MPs can resign at a moment’s notice. Look at Owen Paterson. He was there one minute and gone the next. MPs choose the date. There is a winding-up process for an MP’s office, to do with members of staff who suddenly find themselves without a job, and also to do with the transfer of secure material. But that is separate to when an MP actually stands down. By waiting until the end of the month it means he will have been paid in full for April.”
When he announced his intention to resign, Ahmad Khan said he was going to appeal against his conviction and would “focus entirely on clearing my name”.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it had not yet been notified of any application from Khan to appeal. He has 28 days from the date of his conviction, 11 April, to apply for leave to appeal. He is due to be sentenced on 23 May.
