Galloway 'amazed' aide was married to policeman (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Galloway 'amazed' aide was married to policeman

2:00pm Monday 22nd October 2012 in News By Alice Foster, Reporter

An MP was reportedly ‘gobsmacked’ to find out his aide was married to the police officer accused of sleeping in his Streatham house without permission.

MP George Galloway has claimed the officer carried out a ‘dirty tricks campaign’ and set-up fake email addresses in a bid to damage him.

Last week his suspended secretary Aisha Ali-Khan spoke out to The Guardian newspaper saying she was in fact married to police officer Afiz Khan and dismissed talk of conspiracy.

Ron McKay, spokesman for the Bradford West MP, said MP Galloway had no idea they were married.

Mr McKay said: "He was amazed. He didn’t know anything about it."

Ms Ali-Khan has filed a police complaint accusing MP Galloway of hacking into her emails or asking someone else to do this.

But Mr McKay insisted Mr Galloway had not done this: "She may have filed a complaint but certainly George didn’t hack into emails or ask anyone else to."

He also dismissed as ‘untrue’ her claim that Mr Khan never slept at the Streatham home, but only ‘popped-in’ to use the toilet.

The Met said an officer in specialist operations has been put on restricted duties pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

Mr McKay said MP Galloway believed putting him on restricted duties did not go far enough. Mr McKay said: "He thinks he should be suspended. That’s not severe enough."

He added: "There’s not much to do while the police conduct their investigation. Only when that is complete will we know the full facts."

The Bradford West MP had filed an early day motion saying Mr Khan entered his home without consent and used fake email addresses as well as an alias on Facebook to discredit him.

MP Galloway in a letter to her, published on his website, called on the Home Secretary Theresa May to investigate a ‘campaign of vilification’ and said the issue came to light when finger print checks carried out after an unrelated burglary showed that Mr Khan had been in his house.