Stewart was filmed last year telling a Bahraini dissident who was imprisoned and tortured for his human rights activism in the country to ‘go back to Bahrain’.
Tory MP Bob Stewart, who was found guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence after telling an activist to “go back to Bahrain”, has announced he will quit as an MP at the next general election.
Stewart, who represents Beckenham, was filmed last year telling a Bahraini dissident who was imprisoned and tortured for his human rights activism in the country to ‘go back to Bahrain’. The incident took place outside the Foreign Office’s Lancaster House on December 14.
A former British Army officer, Stewart is alleged to have told Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, 36, who says he is living in exile after being tortured in Bahrain, to “get stuffed” and that he is “taking money off my country”.
He made the comments after Alwadaei shouted: “Bob Stewart, for how much did you sell yourself to the Bahraini regime” as the MP attended an event hosted by the Bahraini embassy at the Foreign Office’s Lancaster House in Westminster.
Stewart, who surrendered the Tory whip, now sits as an independent.
He said in a tweet that it had been “an honour and a privilege” to serve as a constituency MP.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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