Trust Tories like you trust GPs after Shipman, Wakefield candidate says

Conservative candidate Nadeem Ahmed says people can still trust the Tory party

The Conservative candidate in the Wakefield by-election has said voters should still trust the Tory party after the jailing of disgraced former MP Imran Ahmad Khan.

Khan stood down as MP after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy and jailed for 18 months.

Nadeem Ahmed told the Telegraph Khan was "one bad apple".

"We still trust GPs after Harold Shipman killed hundreds of people," he said.

He is running to replace Khan, who was expelled from the Conservative Party after being found guilty of groping the teenager at a party in Staffordshire in January 2008.

Mr Ahmed told the newspaper what Khan did was "wrong - it was disgusting and he's rightly in prison" but said the Conservatives did not deserve to lose the by-election.

'Acknowledge wrong'

He went on to talk about the killer doctor, Shipman, who took his own life in Wakefield prison in 2004.

Shipman was jailed for life in 2000 for killing 15 patients, but is thought to have murdered over 200.

"He was a GP - a trusted professional, like teachers and others," Mr Ahmed said.

"Have we stopped trusting GPs? No, we still trust GPs and we know that he was one bad apple in there."

He said the people of Wakefield "were forgiving" as long as "we speak the truth to them and acknowledge the wrong of what happened".

The BBC has approached Mr Ahmed for further comment.

The key battleground seat is one of the constituencies Boris Johnson took from Labour in the so-called Red Wall during the 2019 general election.

The by-election will be held on 23 June.

Candidates include:

Nadeem Ahmed, Conservative Party

Akef Akbar, Independent

Paul Bickerdike, Christian Peoples Alliance

Mick Dodgson, Freedom Alliance. Real People. Real Alternative

Sir Archibald Stanton Earl 'Eaton, The Official Monster Raving Loony Party

Jayda Fransen, Independent

Jordan James Gaskell, UK Independence Party

David John Rowntree Herdson, Yorkshire Party

Therese Hirst, English Democrats

Christopher Richard Jones, Northern Independence Party

Simon Robert Lightwood, Labour Party

Jamie Luke Needle, Liberal Democrats

Ashley Theo Blue Routh, Green Party

Ashlea Simon, Britain First

Chris Walsh, Reform UK