Wakefield by-election candidate apologises over Harold Shipman comment

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

A Wakefield by-election candidate has apologised after referring to serial killer Harold Shipman in an analogy about trusting the Tory party.

Conservative Nadeem Ahmed is running to replace ex-MP Imran Ahmad Khan, who was jailed for sexually assaulting a boy.

Mr Ahmed told a newspaper that Khan was "one bad apple" and "we still trust GPs after Harold Shipman killed hundreds of people".

He now admits his comments would have been offensive to Shipman's victims.

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

Speaking to the BBC on Monday, Mr Ahmed said: "The comments and the analogy were incorrect, and in hindsight looking back at it, they were wrong and I apologise because it will have caused offence to the victims of that named person.

"The point I was trying to make was the idea that people need to trust or should have trust in politicians."

'One bad apple'

Last week, Mr Ahmed told the Telegraph: "We still trust GPs after Harold Shipman killed hundreds of people.

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

After apologising on Monday, Mr Ahmed told the BBC that child safeguarding, including safety in classrooms, was "one of my ultimate priorities".

"That did not happen with our last MP and he is in prison and he's rightly in prison."

Khan was sentenced to 18 months in prison and expelled from the Conservative Party after being convicted of groping a 15-year-old boy at a party in Staffordshire in January 2008.

The by-election in Wakefield will be held on Thursday.

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

The candidates

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