Imran Ahmad Khan
Imran Ahmad Khan | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Wakefield | |
| Assumed office 12 December 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Mary Creagh |
| Majority | 3,358 (7.5%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 6 September 1973 Wakefield, West Yorkshire |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Alma mater | King's College London Pushkin Institute Centre International de Formation Européenne |
Imran Nasir Ahmad-Khan[1] (born 6 September 1973)[2] is a British Conservative Party politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Wakefield since the 2019 general election.[3] He is a supporter of Brexit and attributes his election to Wakefield voters’ support for leaving the European Union in 2016.
Ahmad-Khan previously worked for the United Nations as Special Assistant, Political Affairs in Mogadishu and as a senior consultant for M&C Saatchi.
He is the brother of Karim Ahmad Khan QC and Khalid Ahmad Khan.
Early life and career
Imran Ahmad Khan was born in Wakefield and describes himself as a "Proud Yorkshireman".[4] His late father was born in the North-West Frontier Province of what was then British India (modern day Pakistan).[5] Dr Saeed Khan, his father was a medical doctor and, at the time, Wakefield's only consultant dermatologist[citation needed]. His mother is English and a State Registered Nurse and midwife.[citation needed] His grandmother, Joyce Reynolds, was Staff Sister at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield.[citation needed]
Imran attended Silcoates School[6] in Wakefield. He studied Russian language at Pushkin Institute in Moscow, and earned a bachelor's degree in war studies at King's College London.[7]
He has worked for the United Nations as Special Assistant, Political Affairs, in Mogadishu and has also worked as a senior consultant for advertising agency, M&C Saatchi.[7][better source needed] Having worked as a counter-terrorism expert prior to becoming an MP,[6] he joked his experience in conflict zones such as Somalia and Afghanistan gives him what's needed to build bridges between warring parties in the Brexit battle.[8]
Political career
Member of Parliament
Ahmad-Khan defeated incumbent Labour MP Mary Creagh, becoming the first Conservative MP for the constituency in 87 years.[9] Wakefield voted almost 2-to-1 in favour of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum and was a target seat for the Conservatives.[8]
He was selected following the withdrawal of a previous candidate after racist and sexist social media posts were discovered.[10] Labour's incumbent MP Creagh said: "Will the next candidate they parachute in be any better? Don’t hold your breath." Ahmad-Khan responded to this by taking part in a skydive [11] over the town and retorted he was "a local lad born and bred in Wakefield, of Wakefield stock. I couldn't figuratively parachute in—and I didn't want to disappoint her—so I decided I would literally parachute in."[11]
LGBT+ Conservatives Group had incorrectly described Ahmad-Khan as “openly gay”, and he made news worldwide for allegedly becoming the first openly gay Muslim to be elected. They subsequently issued a clarification and the statement read that Ahmad-Khan "fully endorses" the group's aims of protecting the LGBT community, "but is not an out LGBT MP".[12][13]
Political positions
Brexit
Ahmad-Khan is an advocate of Britain's departure from the European Union. In an interview with Channel 4 following his election, he attributed his success during the 2019 general election to "Islington Remainers" who had branded Leave voters "stupid, uneducated, racist or wrong".[14]
Personal life
He has two brothers: Karim Ahmad Khan QC is a barrister specialising in international human rights law, and appointed Assistant Secretary General of the U.N. in 2018 by the United Nations Security Council to lead an investigation into alleged crimes committed by Da'esh/ISIL in Iraq.[4][15] Khalid Ahmad Khan is an Oman-based lawyer who was winner of the Middle East General Counsel of the Year award in 2017, and was named one of the most influential in-house lawyers in the Middle East in Legal 500's GC Powerlist: Middle East 2019.[citation needed]
Imran is a member of the Ahmadiyya Community.[4]
References
- ^ "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008," database, FamilySearch". Retrieved 2019-12-14.
- ^ "Imran Ahmad Khan for Wakefield in the UK Parliament elections". Who Can I Vote For? by Democracy Club. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
- ^ "Wakefield Parliamentary constituency". BBC. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
- ^ a b c "Imran Khan becomes first Ahmadi to be elected to British Parliament". Rabwah Times. 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
- ^ "Imran Ahmad Khan Becomes World's First Openly Gay Muslim MP As He Gets Elected To UK Parliament". swarajyamag.com.
- ^ a b "Wakefield Tory candidate Antony Calvert stands down over Facebook posts". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
- ^ a b "LinkedIn - ImranAhmadKhan". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
- ^ a b Crilly, Rob (6 December 2019). "Echoes of Trump across the pond: Blue-collar Labour voters feel abandoned by party elite". Washington Examiner. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
- ^ "Conservatives win Wakefield for first time in nearly 90 years". www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
- ^ Perraudin, Frances (14 November 2019). "PM under fire for not sacking candidate who wrote 'racist' articles". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
- ^ a b Scott, Geraldine (21 November 2019). "Tory candidate is literally parachuted in to Wakefield to counter opponents' claims". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
- ^ "Tories apologise after Imran Ahmad Khan was 'incorrectly' named as first openly gay Muslim MP". ITV News. 18 December 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
- ^ Mahmood, Basit (20 December 2019). "Conservative Party apologises for saying MP was 'openly gay'". Metro. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
- ^ "'Islington Remainers' branded Leave voters 'stupid, uneducated, racist or wrong', says Tory MP Imran Ahmad-Khan". channel4.com. 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
- ^ Michelle Nichols (August 23, 2018), U.N. team, approved a year ago, starts work on Islamic State crimes in Iraq Reuters.