Tory candidate claims we can still trust MPs with bizarre Harold Shipman analogy

With trust in the Conservative Party waning thanks to a whole host of scandals, one Tory candidate has come up with a questionable comparison to a serial killer to explain why people should still trust them.

The Telegraph’s Whitehall correspondent Tony Diver was in Wakefield ahead of the by-election next week that has been called after the former Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan was convicted for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

Diver spoke to Tory candidate in the Wakefield by-election, Nadeem Ahmed, who claimed Khan was “one bad apple” and argued “we still trust GPs” after notorious serial killer Harold Shipman killed 250 people.

Tory hopeful Ahmed said: “The people of Wakefield know that he [Khan] was one bad apple. As you know, Harold Shipman committed suicide in Wakefield prison.

“He was a GP – one of the most, you know, a trusted professional like teachers and others… Have we stopped trusting GPs? No.”

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The bizarre comparison has baffled social media users who have pointed out that comparing the party to a serial killer might not be the best tactic.

One person wrote: “The worst aspect of this, apart from the obvious, is that he obviously thought this was a winning line of argument.

“Do Wakefield voters (‘forgiving’ as they may be!) really want someone as brain dead and tone deaf as this representing them in Parliament?”

Another joked: “Tbf to him I’m not 100 per cent convinced Shipman would lose the whip if he was a Tory MP now.”

Someone else pointed out: “There's something with a Little Britain character potential, about a politician, that on being asked a difficult question, voluntarily brings up something worse.”

Another pointed out: “‘Tories - we're not as bad as Harold Shipman’ is quite the slogan.”

“Unreal levels of campaigning,” someone else mocked.

Someone else suggested: “Media training 101: don’t needlessly invoke Harold Shipman to defend your position.”

Another by-election is also taking place in Tiverton in Devon after the outgoing Tory MP Neil Parish resigned after being caught watching porn in the House of Commons twice.

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