Tory MP accused of telling activist to ‘go back to Bahrain’ set to face trial

A Conservative MP who allegedly told an activist to ‘go back to Bahrain’ will now stand trial accused of racial abuse.

Bob Stewart denies making racially aggravated comments towards Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei during a confrontation in central London.

The 74-year-old is alleged to have made the remark outside the Foreign Office’s Lancaster House following a reception hosted at the Bahraini embassy on December 14 last year.

Mr Alwadaei, the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, reported the incident to the Met Police and the Conservative Party.

In a statement issued at the time, he said: ‘I don’t believe I would have been told to “go back” to the country that violently tortured me if it weren’t for the colour of my skin.’

Wearing a black suit, blue shirt and light blue tie, Mr Stewart spoke to confirm his name and date of birth when appearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

He pleaded not guilty to racially aggravated threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour and using threatening or abusive words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring told the grey-haired Tory MP for Beckenham: ‘Mr Stewart, you plead not guilty, that means there needs to be a trial.

‘It will take place at this court on November 3 this year. You will need to be at court for 9:30am for an approximately 10 o’clock start.’

Mr Stewart, a former British Army officer who was stationed in Bahrain in 1969 and has represented Beckenham since 2010, is the chair of the all-parliamentary group on Bahrain.

Following the incident, he apologised and issued a statement in which he said: ‘I meant go back to Bahrain, which is a perfectly safe place, and protest there.

‘If anyone thinks I’ve been racist I honestly didn’t mean to be, and I apologise if they think that, and I wasn’t.’

Mr Alwadaei fled to the UK in 2012 and was granted political asylum by the Home Office.

He later co-founded the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and is an advocate for human rights in the Middle Eastern state.

During his time in the armed forces, Mr Stewart was a United Nations commander in Bosnia – a post which earned him the nickname ‘Bosnia Bob’.

Mr Stewart was privately educated at Chigwell School before attending the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Claire Walsh, deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS London South, previously said: ‘The CPS has authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Robert Alexander Stewart MP, 73, with a racially aggravated offence contrary to s5 of the Public Order Act and in the alternative, a non-aggravated section 5 offence under the same Act.

‘These charges relate to an incident that took place on 14 December 2022.

‘The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr Stewart are active and he therefore has the right to a fair trial.

‘It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.’

Metro.co.uk also revealed today that more than 200 Met Police officers have been taken off the frontline over race and sexual misconduct allegations.

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