Yorkshire MP accused of sexual assault to go on trial next year
Imran Ahmad Khan denies the charge
An MP accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008 will go on trial in the spring.
Imran Ahmad Khan, 48, who represents Wakefield in West Yorkshire, denies a single charge of sexual assault against the then teenager in Staffordshire in January 2008.
On Thursday, the Tory MP appeared at the Old Bailey by video link for a short hearing before Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb.
The senior judge set a two-week trial to start on March 21 and transferred the case to Southwark Crown Court.
The defendant, who is on unconditional bail, has been suspended by the Conservative Party.
The MP, from Wakefield, helped Boris Johnson win a large Commons majority by taking the constituency in the so-called "red wall" that had formed Labour's heartlands in the Midlands and the north of England.
The Conservatives have previously said the whip had been suspended from Ahmad Khan, meaning he sits as an independent in the Commons.