Ahmad Khan was born in Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, where both his parents worked. His father, Dr Saeed Ahmad Khan, was born in the North-West Frontier Province of British India, modern day Pakistan, and worked as a consultant dermatologist. His English mother was a State Registered Nurse and midwife. His grandmother, Joyce Reynolds, also worked at Pinderfields Hospital as a staff sister. His grandfather was a miner. Ahmad Khan attended the local, independent Silcoates School. He studied Russian language at Pushkin Institute in Moscow, and earned a bachelor's degree in war studies at King's College London. He worked for the United Nations as special assistant for political affairs in Mogadishu and as a senior consultant for advertising agency, M&C Saatchi. Having worked as a counter-terrorism expert prior to becoming an MP, he joked his experience in conflict zones such as Somalia and Afghanistan gives him what would be needed to build bridges between warring parties in the Brexit battle.
Political career
Member of Parliament
Ahmad Khan defeated the incumbent Labour MP, Mary Creagh, to become the first Conservative MP for the constituency in 87 years. He decided to stand after seeing the seeds in Britain of the loss of democracy he had seen abroad. Wakefield voted almost 2-to-1 in favour of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum and was a target seat for the Conservatives. He was selected after the withdrawal of a candidate whose racist and sexist social media posts were uncovered. Labour's Creagh said: "Will the next candidate they parachute in be any better? Don’t hold your breath." Ahmad Khan responded by taking part in a skydive over the town and retorted he was "a local lad born and bred in Wakefield, of Wakefield stock. I couldn't figuratively parachute in—and I didn't want to disappoint her—so I decided I would literally parachute in." The LGBT+ Conservatives group incorrectly described Ahmad Khan as 'openly gay' and he made news worldwide for becoming the first openly gay Muslim to be elected. They subsequently clarified that Ahmad Khan "fully endorses" the group's aims "but is not an out LGBT MP". The confusion arose after a mistaken application to a fund to help LGBT+ Conservative candidates. In his maiden speech in January 2020, Ahmad Khan paid tribute to his predecessor and spoke of his pleasure at being part of "a vibrant and dynamic pack of Yorkshire MPs". He called for equality of opportunity needs to be made real and more patriotism: "I see perhaps more clearly than most the deep and enduring importance of core British values such as compassion, tolerance and fairness, especially at a time when those values are perceived as under threat in many parts of our world."
Coronavirus response
Ahmad Khan organised a shipment of 110,000 reusable face masks through connections with the charity Solidarités international and the Vietnamese Government. Most of the masks were for the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust's Pontefract, Pinderfields and Dewsbury and District Hospitals and 10,000 were distributed by the trust to local care homes and hospices. He launched 'Wakefield Together' to co-ordinate local efforts to tackle difficulties arising from coronavirus.
Political positions
Brexit
Ahmad Khan supported Britain's departure from the European Union. In an interview with Channel 4 he attributed his success in the 2019 general election to "Islington Remainers" who branded Leave voters "stupid, uneducated, racist or wrong".
Ahmad Khan is a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and describes himself as a "proud Yorkshireman". He has two brothers, Karim Ahmad Khan QC is an assistant secretary-general of the United Nations, appointed by the UN Security Council to lead an investigation into alleged crimes committed by Da'esh/ISIL in Iraq. Khalid Ahmad Khan won the Middle East General Counsel of the Year Award in 2017, and was named one of the most influential in-house lawyers in the Middle East in Legal 500's GC Powerlist 2019.
