Abu Yusra Chowdhury
Labour MP Afzal Khan resigned as the UK’s trade envoy to Turkey on August 16 after an allegedly unauthorised visit to Northern Cyprus sparked a week-long political storm and accusations of subverting British foreign policy. han, the MP for Manchester Rusholme, resigned amid mounting pressure from Tory MPs and the Greek Cypriot lobby.
Khan visited the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), a breakaway territory recognised solely by Turkey since its 1974 invasion. During the trip, he reportedly met Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar and, according to the Daily Mail, “posed for photographs beneath the territory’s flag”—a symbol and entity not recognised by the UK.
Khan insisted the visit was personal. In his resignation letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he stressed it occurred “in a personal capacity during the parliamentary recess” and was “unrelated to my role as Trade Envoy.”
Nevertheless, once news about the report came out, the Greek Cypriot government described Khan’s actions as “absolutely condemnable and unacceptable.” The National Federation of Cypriots in the UK quickly mobilised, with President Christos Karaolis demanding Khan’s removal.
The campaign gathered pace as Tory MPs amplified the criticism. Shadow Foreign Secretary, Dame Priti Patel, demanded Khan’s resignation, telling the Daily Mail: “Keir Starmer should have sacked his trade envoy immediately for his ill-judged travel. Once again, the Prime Minister faces serious questions over his poor judgment and actions that erode Britain’s global standing.”
Photo: Shadow Foreign Minister Wendy Morton called out on X for condemning Afzal Khan over actions she herself had taken.
Shadow Foreign Minister, Wendy Morton, similarly condemned the visit, stating, “A government representative would never visit occupied Donbas or Crimea. So for Afzal Khan to unofficially visit occupied Northern Cyprus is totally unacceptable.”
However, Khan’s supporters point to apparent double standards among his critics. The Freedom and Fairness group notes that Morton herself “paid an official visit” to the territory in 2021, meeting Tatar in her capacity as a UK government minister. The group also highlights that “just three months ago, Morton joined a trip funded by the Greek Cypriot government to southern Cyprus.”
Other senior Conservative figures who have engaged with the Turkish Cypriot government include Iain Duncan Smith, former Foreign Minister Dominic Raab, Leo Docherty and Stephen Doughty.
The campaign against Khan veered into Islamophobic territory, with Daily Mail columnist Andrew Pierce mocking him as the “Honourable Member for Islamabad.”
Pierce highlighted that “Islam is the largest religion in Manchester Rusholme, amounting to some 37 per cent of the electorate, while in Northern Cyprus, 97 per cent of locals are Sunni Muslims,” and insinuated that Khan’s visit was politically motivated: “the only way he can survive as an MP is by courting the Muslim bloc vote in his constituency—who sympathise with their co-religionists on the island.”
Pierce’s column highlighted Khan’s background, noting he was “born in Pakistan, where he lived until he was 11,” and describing him as “perhaps the Commons’ most vocal cheerleader for his ancestral homeland.”
Notably, Pierce ignored Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel’s controversial 2017 visit to Israel as International Development Secretary, during which she held unauthorised meetings with Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, now wanted by the International Criminal Court over Gaza-related genocide charges. The meetings prompted her resignation from the Cabinet.
Now, not all politicians joined the chorus against Khan. Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist MP Sammy Wilson defended Khan, stating, according to the Freedom and Fairness for Northern Cyprus website, “Afzal Khan’s resignation is deeply unfair and unjust. No MP should be punished for engaging with Turkish Cypriots and listening to their concerns.
For decades, MPs have visited Northern Cyprus and met officials without consequence – yet Afzal Khan has been unfairly singled out. The hypocrisy is glaring: those now criticising him have themselves visited Northern Cyprus and even travelled to territories the UK does not recognise, such as Somaliland.”
Chair of the Foreign Select Committee, Alicia Kearns, who condemned Khan’s private visit, as “a territory we don’t recognise”, herself visited Somaliland in 2023, a region which has no international recognition from the UK or broader international community.
Khan’s resignation marks a major triumph for Greek Cypriot diplomacy. The Cypriot newspaper Philetheros hailed as “a diplomatic victory for Cyprus,” noting that his departure sends a resounding political message, the result of coordinated efforts by Cyprus, the Cypriot diaspora, and supporters within the British Parliament. The paper emphasised that, for the first time, mobilisation from Cyprus has achieved a tangible impact, representing a landmark success for Cypriot diplomacy.
The Turkish Cypriot Youth Association UK responded by condemning what it called “blatant double standards,” stating according to the Londra Gazete, “Punishing an elected Member of Parliament for engaging with our community is a direct affront to democracy, justice, and the principles of dialogue.”
The British Turkish Association, in a letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy, called the move “unjust and discriminatory”. It noted that Khan had simply done what many MPs have done for decades: engage openly with Turkish Cypriots. “To punish anyone for such engagement undermines free speech, weakens parliamentary independence, and sends a damaging message to the 300,000 Turkish Cypriots in the UK that their voices do not matter,” the letter stated.
✍️ Turkish and Turkish Cypriot organisations, as well as UK parliamentarians, unite to defend Afzal Khan MP
— Freedom and Fairness for Northern Cyprus (@FFNCyprus) August 21, 2025
Representatives from the Freedom and Fairness for Northern Cyprus (FFNC), British Turkish Association (BTA), and Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations (CTCA), alongside… pic.twitter.com/N5vIkes9m0
TRNC President Tatar condemned the resignation as evidence of a “primitive and domineering mentality” on the part of the Greek Cypriot leadership. “For an elected parliamentarian to be forced to resign simply because he engaged with the Turkish Cypriot people is a shameful affront to democracy and equality,” he said, highlighting decades of unjust isolation of Turkish Cypriots.
In his resignation letter Khan said he felt it was “best to stand down at this time so not to distract from the hard work the government is doing to secure the best possible trade deals for this country.”
Photo: Afzal Khan (L) meets Ersin Tatar, the president of Northern Cyprus. (Credit: Northern Cyprus Presidency)
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