A WOULD-BE Labour candidate has come under renewed pressure after ten women in his own party wrote a letter to its leadership insisting he is “unfit” to be an MP.
Asim Khan is in the running to be Labour’s candidate for the key Westminster seat of Glasgow South West, where the SNP has a slim majority of just 60.
But the selection contest has been beset with controversies after it emerged a judge previously described him as “evasive” and “untruthful”.
READ MORE: Row over aspiring Labour candidate heats up as formal complaint submitted
Now ten women have written to Labour's leadership – including UK leader Jeremy Corbyn and his Scottish equivalent Richard Leonard – expressing their “disgust and disbelief” at its inaction over the revelations.
It comes after a formal complaint was submitted raising concerns about Mr Khan’s alleged failure to tell the party about the 2016 employment tribunal in which a judge criticised him.
Mr Khan was previously chair of Roshni, a charity for ethnic minority survivors of sexual abuse.
In 2016, a tribunal ordered Roshni and its founder Ali Khan to jointly pay an anonymous staffer £75,000 following a “lengthy and sustained series of acts of harassment and victimisation” by Ali Khan and another man.
Asim Khan was mentioned in the ruling over what the judge described as his “complete failure” to take steps to protect the claimant in his role as chair. It also found he was “evasive” during cross-examination and “untruthful”.
In their letter, the ten women wrote: “Given these revelations, we feel that Khan is unfit to be a Labour Party candidate let alone an elected member of parliament.”
They hit out at Mr Khan’s alleged failure to tell the party about the tribunal when he applied to become a candidate, adding: “His failure to disclose this appalling incident only adds to our unease over his candidacy.”
READ MORE: Judge rules against Scottish Labour in heated selection battle row
They continued: “For our party not to act in the correct and just manner would be an insult to the many women who suffer from abuse in our society.”
Earlier this week, Mr Khan won a court case against Labour after an internal ruling resulted in around 80 local members – many from ethnic minority backgrounds – not being eligible to vote in the selection process for Glasgow South West.
Responding to the letter, he said it was "time for malicious attacks to end" and urged members to focus on getting a Labour Government.
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