Tory MP Bob Stewart admits error after he was caught on video telling activist to ‘go back to Bahrain’ | Politics news

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Conservative MP Bob Stewart said he made a “mistake” after he was caught on video telling the human rights activist to “go back to Bahrain”.

In video obtained by Sky News, Sayed Alwadaei, director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), confronts the veteran Conservative MP outside a reception hosted by the Bahraini embassy.

“How much did you sell yourself to the Bahraini regime?” Alwadaei asks, referring to a trip paid for by the Bahraini government before its elections.

In response, Mr Stewart said: “Fill it up. Bahrain is a wonderful place. End.”

“They paid you recently,” adds Al-Wadaei.

Mr. Stewart replies, “Go away, I hate you. You make too much of a fuss. Go back to Bahrain.”

And when Mr. Stewart was asked again “How much did you sell yourself to the Bahraini regime” again by Mr. Al-Wadaei: “I didn’t, now shut up you stupid man.”

When the farewell Mr. asks again: “What amount,” Mr. Stewart replies: “You take money out of my country, go away!”

Stewart told Sky News he was “not a racist”.

The Beckenham MP admitted the footage was of himself, telling Sky News: “I was triggered by a response, a mistake on my part. [taking money], it never was. “

Mr. Stewart added, “It is a beautiful country, I am Chairman of the All Party Country Group. I have watched it become a very nice place to live.”

He also stressed that he “didn’t take a personal penny” from the authorities in Bahrain for his role as head of APPG.

Mr Stewart continued: “I’m not a racist, it really hurts, I lived in the Middle East.”

“I don’t think I could have been called back if it weren’t for the color of my skin.”

The MP for Beckenham is a former British Army officer stationed in Bahrain in 1969.

Parliamentary records show Mr Stewart recorded flights, accommodation and meals worth £5,349 during a four-day trip to Bahrain in November last year paid for by the Foreign Office.

A separate entry covered by the Bahraini government shows another trip to visit an airshow and meet its foreign minister worth £1,245.56.

Mr Alwadaei lodged a complaint with the Parliamentary Standards Committee and Conservative Party Chairman Nadim Al Zahawi about Mr Stewart’s behaviour.

He is also seeking legal advice to file a complaint with the police.

“I don’t think I would have been asked to return to the country that tortured me so violently had it not been for the color of my skin,” he said in a statement.

“No one should be subjected to racial abuse, especially for an MP being held accountable for accepting generous gifts from one of the most repressive regimes in the world.

“Stewart acts as a mouthpiece through her public denials of notorious and widely documented human rights abuses, abuses that have been condemned by the United Nations.”

Alwadaei says he was imprisoned and tortured for his participation in a pro-democracy uprising in 2011 and that after his sentencing he sought political asylum in the UK in 2012.

He says his Bahraini citizenship was revoked after a protest against the presence of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in 2013.

A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “We have an established code of conduct and formal procedures where complaints can be lodged in confidence. This process is truly confidential.”

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