Trust the Tories like you trusted GPs after Harold Shipman, Wakefield candidate says

Voters should trust the Tories after Wakefield’s former MP was convicted of sexual assault, just as they still trust GPs despite mass murderer Harold Shipman, the party’s by-election candidate has said.

Nadeem Ahmed said former West Yorkshire Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan was a “bad apple” after he was found guilty of groping a teenager.

Asked if the Tories deserved to lose the by-election, Ahmed told The Telegraph: “No, because Mr Khan, for his crimes, the right things have happened to him, he is in prison.”

He was also filmed saying what Mr Khan did was “wrong” and “disgusting”.

“The people of Wakefield know it was a bad apple,” he continued.

“As you know, Harold Shipman committed suicide in Wakefield Prison. He was a general practitioner, he was a trusted professional like teachers and others.

“When they put a vaccine in our arms, we trust what they’re putting in us.

“Have we stopped trusting GPs? No, we still trust GPs and we know he was a bad apple there.”

He added that the people of Wakefield were “forgiving”.

Shipman, who committed suicide in prison in 2004, is one of the most notorious serial killers in modern history, having killed more than 200 people.

Ahmed is running to replace Khan, who was expelled from the Conservative Party and resigned, triggering a by-election in the constituency, after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008 by a jury following a trial earlier this year.

Mr Khan was jailed for 18 months in May.

The Conservatives could lose the key battleground seat, one of dozens of constituencies Boris Johnson took from Labor in the so-called Red Wall during the 2019 general election, to Labor next Thursday amid anger over the condemnation of Khan and the party gate, as well as concerns about the cost of living.

With by-elections in Tiverton and Honiton due to be held on the same day as Wakefield on June 23, the Prime Minister faces the prospect of losing seats to Sir Keir Starmer’s party in the north of England and the Liberal southwest democrats. .

Both by-elections take place in controversial circumstances, with Tiverton and Honiton being vacated by Neil Parish after he admitted twice viewing pornography in the Commons.