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.

Mr Khan, who has been suspended by the Conservative Party, was found guilty by a jury at Southwark Crown Court on Monday by a jury after around five hours of deliberations.

The judge, Mr Justice Baker said he will sentence Khan at a date to be fixed.

The court heard how Khan forced the teenager to drink gin and tonic, dragged him upstairs, pushed him onto a bed and asked him to watch pornography before the attack at a house in Staffordshire in January 2008.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus:

In a statement posted to Twitter, Mr Khan, who became Wakefield MP following the 2019 general election, 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."

Imran Ahmad Khan added: "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."