Second Man Accuses Expelled Tory MP of Sexual Misconduct After Assault Conviction

Imran Ahmed Khan, a Muslim of Pakistani descent, said the allegations of drinking — and now drug abuse — and his conviction for molesting a teenage boy had 'not been easy' for his family and community.

A second man has accused an MP of sexual misconduct a day after he announced he was stepping down from Parliament after his conviction for assaulting a teenage boy.

Wakefield MP Imran Ahmad Khan announced his resignation on Thursday, following his conviction on Monday for a sexual assault offence dating back to 2008, when the victim was 15.

The new accuser told The Guardian newspaper that he met Khan at a birthday party in Suffolk in August 2015, when he was just 16.

The man, going under the pseudonym of "Andrew", said Khan, who would have been over 40 years old at the time, offered to perform oral sex on him and to take him to a hotel to party with cocaine and a prostitute.

"Andrew" said he saw Khan looking "off his face" by a campfire at the large open-air event, and asked if he was OK. He allegedly replied that he had been given "far too many pills" by his friends.

The Next day the youth was among of a group of people listening to Khan tell of his adventures while acting as a mediator between the Afghan Taliban and the British government.

"He said he’d been shot at and blown up while travelling in a vehicle which was hit by an IED [improvised explosive device] and then he lifted his shirt up to show us some scars," Andrew said. "He asked me to touch them and I put my finger in one of the divots."

Khan allegedly then asked Andrew about his sexuality. When he replied that he was straight, Khan countered that he believed sexuality was "on a spectrum." He claimed that Khan later offered to give him "the best blowjob" of his life.

The future MP allegedly asked Andrew if he had ever tried “DP” (double penetration). Then asked "why don’t we hang out and have some fun?" before offering to book a hotel room in Henley-on-Thames, "buy lots of cocaine and a prostitute and ‘fuck all weekend’."

"I told him that he had made me feel uncomfortable and that it was a bit weird," Andrew said. "He asked 'why weird?', and I said, well, I’m only 16. He replied: ‘that’s OK, you’re legal’."

Andrew's mother and her boyfriend told the newspaper they were also at the party. The mother said she told Khan to "stay away" from her son after he told her about the proposition, while her partner told him his behaviour was "inappropriate".

Changing Seats

In a statement released on Thursday, the Khan insisted he had been unfairly "characterised as a sexual predator, outcast, and worse."

"A jury found me guilty of touching a leg above clothing with sexual intent," the MP pleaded.

The court heard how Khan had got the young man drunk on gin before touching him inappropriately.

Despite vowing to appeal the conviction, Khan said he had "regrettably come to the conclusion that it is intolerable for constituents to go years without an MP who can amplify their voices in Parliament" and would therefore step down.

"I am now able to focus entirely on clearing my name," the MP said, apologising to "my family and
community for the humiliation this has caused them."

Khan is a Muslim of Pakistani descent and only came out as gay in March, when his trial began.

"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," he said.

Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, who came out as gay and left his wife of 20 years in 2010, apologised earlier this week after denouncing Khan's conviction as a "dreadful miscarriage of justice."

Blunt claimed the trial "relied on lazy tropes about LGBT+ people" and that the verdict had "dreadful wider implications" for gay Muslims "around the world."

Since British Parliamentary rules do not allow members of the elected House of Commons to resign their seats, those wishing to quit must perform an arcane legal manoeuvre to get themselves disqualified from sitting.

Taking advantage of the ancient prohibition on those holding and "office of profit under the Crown" sitting in the Commons, MPs can drop out by appointed to one of two positions that have been redundant for over 400 years: The 'Crown Steward and Bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham' and the 'Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead'.

Khan's decision to step down will trigger a by-election in Wakefield at a time when Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under fire over the 'Partygate' scandal.

The Yorkshire constituency consistently elected Labour Party MPs by small majorities until the 2019 general election, when Khan took the seat amid the collapse of the northern 'Red Wall'.

Slew of Allegations

Khan was not the first British politician to be found guilty of sexual misconduct in recent years.

Somerton and Frome MP David Warburton was suspended from the Tory whip this month after he was accused of making unwanted advances toward three women — including two Parliamentary staff — and taking cocaine.

Warburton brazenly claimed that lines of white powder on an upturned baking dish in a photo of him were actually his dandruff — not the Devil's dandruff.

Delyn MP Rob Roberts, also elected as a Conservative, was censured by Parliament's Independent Experts' Panel (IEP) in May 2021 for making "repeated, unwelcome sexual advances" towards a male member of his staff. Roberts refused to resign, prompting the government to introduce a legislative amendment giving the IEP the same powers as the Parliamentary Standards Committee to suspend MPs, allowing for a recall petition to be launched by constituents.

Labour MP for Hartlepool Mike Hill stepped down in March 2021 after a female member of his staff accused him of sexual harassment, allegations that were later upheld by an inquiry. The ensuing by-election saw the Tories win the northern industrial seat for the first time since the 1960s.

Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) MP Patrick Grady resigned as the party's chief whip in Westminster, but not from his seat, the same month after allegations from two young male staffers of sexual harassment. SNMP leaders were accused of trying to bury the claims.

Derek MacKay, former finance minister for the devolved Scottish regional administration, was forced to resign in February 2020 after it emerged that he had stalked a 16-year-old boy by sending him hundreds of online private messages, many of a sexual nature. MacKay continued to sit as a member of the Scottish assembly until the March 2021 election.