Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The Conservative MP Bob Stewart has been charged with a racially aggravated public order offence after an incident outside a reception hosted by the Bahraini embassy.

Stewart would appear before Westminster magistrates court on 5 July, after activist Sayed Ahmed Al-Wadaei lodged a complaint in which he claimed that Stewart told him: "Go back to Bahrain."

Police in Westminster investigated and submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service, which authorized the charges. The police said in a statement that Stewart was accused of "using threatening or abusive words or behavior" and that "the offence was racially aggravated". He was also accused of "using threatening or abusive words or behavior likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress." It said both charges related to the same incident and that the "second offence is an alternative charge to allow the court discretion on the racial element."

Party sources said he regretted the comments he had made and would fight the charges in court.

Stewart became an MP in 2010 and serves on a number of parliamentary committees, including the intelligence and security committee and the Northern Ireland affairs committee. He is also the chairman of the all-parliamentary group on Bahrain. Before becoming an MP, Stewart was an army officer for 26 years and served in Northern Ireland and Bosnia.

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