Tory MP Bob Stewart charged with ‘racially aggravated’ offense

LONDON — A senior Conservative MP has been charged with public order offenses after a clash with a protestor.

Bob Stewart, the Tory MP for Beckenham, was served Monday with two postal charges by the Metropolitan Police.

The force opened a case last December following a complaint from human rights activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei over an incident in Belgravia, London. Stewart was filmed allegedly telling the man to “go back to Bahrain.”

In a statement Monday, the Met said the first of the two charges alleges the use of “threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour and the offence was racially aggravated.” The second, alternative charge relates to alleged “threatening or abusive words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.”

The Met said that both charges relate to the same incident on December 14, 2022 and that the second “is an alternative charge to allow the court discretion on the racial element.”

Stewart, 73, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on July 5.