The world’s first openly gay Muslim MP has been selected to be a part of the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson new government.
Imran Ahmad-Khan, a conservative politician, made history on Friday as he defeated a Labour candidate in the Labour-led constituency with 3,358 votes. The Wakefield in Yorkshire elected a conservative politician for the first time since 1931.
Khan is now part of the 24 members of Tories who openly identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. The Tories has also become the party with the largest number of out LGBTQ+ members followed by the Labour with 18 and SNP with 10.
Among 650 MPs, the UK now has 8% of LGBTQ+ members as MPs, which is a record for the UK.
Khan is also the first Ahmadi Muslim, a minority subgroup, to be elected for to the British Parliament. He is a strong supporter of Brexit and has openly credited his success to ‘Islington Remainers’ who had labelled the Leave voters as “stupid, uneducated, racist or wrong.”
After the election, Khan had said, “I think [the people of Wakefield] are tired of politicians telling them what to think.”
Britain's new political landscape began to take shape Monday as triumphant Prime Minister Boris Johnson talked trade with President Donald Trump and readied a pep talk for his new Conservative Party lawmakers.
The incoming class of new Conservative legislators was so big - 109 lawmakers - that organizers had to procure an extra 50 bottles of wine for the evening event, British tabloids said. Lawmakers from all parties will be sworn in on Tuesday, the first day of the new session in Parliament.
Johnson's Conservatives received a larger-than-expected majority in last week's national election, galvanizing his efforts to secure parliamentary approval for his Brexit divorce deal with the European Union. Many of them are coming from parts of the country that for decades were strongholds of the opposition Labour Party.
Overall, the Conservatives now have 365 of the House of Commons' 650 seats.
With inputs from Agencies.
