The Conservative MP Bob Stewart has been charged with a racially aggravated public order offence after an incident outside a reception hosted by the Bahraini embassy.
Police launched an investigation into the south London MP after he was confronted by an activist whom he allegedly told: “Go back to Bahrain.”
Stewart, 73, was charged with two offences after the incident on 14 December last year outside the Foreign Office’s Lancaster House in central London.
One charge was of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour, which was racially aggravated. The other was of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
The Metropolitan police said it had received an online report on 18 December from a man alleging he had been verbally racially abused.
Police in Westminster investigated and submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service, which authorised the charges. Stewart would appear before Westminster magistrates court on 5 July, the Met said.
The force said the second offence was an alternative charge to allow the court discretion on the racial element – it related to the same incident rather than a separate charge on its own.
The complaint to police was lodged by Sayed Alwadaei, the director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird).
It is understood that Stewart will retain the Conservative whip. Party sources said he regretted the comments he had made and would fight the charges in court.
Stewart became an MP in 2010 and serves on a number of parliamentary committees, including the intelligence and security committee and the Northern Ireland affairs committee. Before becoming an MP, Stewart was an army officer for 26 years and served in Northern Ireland and Bosnia.
