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2022 Wakefield by-election
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2022 Wakefield by-election
A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Wakefield was held on 23 June 2022, triggered by the resignation of incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) Imran Ahmad Khan following a criminal conviction for child sexual assault. It was won by Simon Lightwood of the Labour Party, and was the first by-election gain made by Labour since 2012.
Khan was elected as a Conservative Party candidate at the 2019 general election. He lost the whip in June 2021 after being charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008, and sat as an independent thereafter. He was convicted in April 2022, and resigned his seat. Khan was subsequently jailed for 18 months.
It was held on the same day as the 2022 Tiverton and Honiton by-election, which the Conservatives lost to the Liberal Democrats. This marked the first time since the 1991 Kincardine and Deeside and Langbaurgh by-elections that the UK government had lost two seats at two by-elections held on the same day.
Wakefield lies in the county of West Yorkshire. The seat covers most of Wakefield itself (besides the Wakefield South ward), the small towns of Ossett and Horbury, and the more rural parishes of Crigglestone, Sitlington, West Bretton and Woolley. In the 2016 EU referendum, 63% of the voters who turned out voted to leave the European Union.
The by-election was expected to be the ninth or tenth of the 2019 Parliament. Before Ahmad Khan won the seat for the Conservatives at the 2019 general election, it had been held by the Labour Party since the 1932 Wakefield by-election, when Labour gained the seat from the Conservatives. The seat is regarded as part of the so-called "red wall", and Labour hoped to regain it.
Ahmad Khan was first elected as the Conservative MP for Wakefield in the 2019 general election. He lost the whip in June 2021 after being charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008. He sat as an independent for the remaining months of his tenure as MP. He was convicted of the assault on 11 April 2022 and expelled from the party, announcing his intention to resign as an MP on 14 April 2022. On 25 April, Khan submitted his resignation, effective from 30 April, enabling him to claim his full pay as MP for the month. On 3 May Khan was appointed as Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern, officially ceasing to be an MP. On 23 May Khan was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
On 17 May the writ of election was moved by the Chief Whip, Chris Heaton-Harris, formally triggering the by-election. It was scheduled to be held on 23 June 2022, the same day as the Tiverton and Honiton by-election.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Lord Frost was being urged by his allies to stand in the seat. In its Steerpike opinion piece, The Spectator discussed the prospect of Frost being the Conservative candidate, noting the Telegraph's support for the idea.
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2022 Wakefield by-election
A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Wakefield was held on 23 June 2022, triggered by the resignation of incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) Imran Ahmad Khan following a criminal conviction for child sexual assault. It was won by Simon Lightwood of the Labour Party, and was the first by-election gain made by Labour since 2012.
Khan was elected as a Conservative Party candidate at the 2019 general election. He lost the whip in June 2021 after being charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008, and sat as an independent thereafter. He was convicted in April 2022, and resigned his seat. Khan was subsequently jailed for 18 months.
It was held on the same day as the 2022 Tiverton and Honiton by-election, which the Conservatives lost to the Liberal Democrats. This marked the first time since the 1991 Kincardine and Deeside and Langbaurgh by-elections that the UK government had lost two seats at two by-elections held on the same day.
Wakefield lies in the county of West Yorkshire. The seat covers most of Wakefield itself (besides the Wakefield South ward), the small towns of Ossett and Horbury, and the more rural parishes of Crigglestone, Sitlington, West Bretton and Woolley. In the 2016 EU referendum, 63% of the voters who turned out voted to leave the European Union.
The by-election was expected to be the ninth or tenth of the 2019 Parliament. Before Ahmad Khan won the seat for the Conservatives at the 2019 general election, it had been held by the Labour Party since the 1932 Wakefield by-election, when Labour gained the seat from the Conservatives. The seat is regarded as part of the so-called "red wall", and Labour hoped to regain it.
Ahmad Khan was first elected as the Conservative MP for Wakefield in the 2019 general election. He lost the whip in June 2021 after being charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008. He sat as an independent for the remaining months of his tenure as MP. He was convicted of the assault on 11 April 2022 and expelled from the party, announcing his intention to resign as an MP on 14 April 2022. On 25 April, Khan submitted his resignation, effective from 30 April, enabling him to claim his full pay as MP for the month. On 3 May Khan was appointed as Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern, officially ceasing to be an MP. On 23 May Khan was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
On 17 May the writ of election was moved by the Chief Whip, Chris Heaton-Harris, formally triggering the by-election. It was scheduled to be held on 23 June 2022, the same day as the Tiverton and Honiton by-election.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Lord Frost was being urged by his allies to stand in the seat. In its Steerpike opinion piece, The Spectator discussed the prospect of Frost being the Conservative candidate, noting the Telegraph's support for the idea.