Labour MP hosted man charged with being part of banned PKK group in parliament

A Labour MP hosted a man at the centre of a terror group probe in parliament just weeks before his arrest, Sky News can reveal.

Agit Karatas is one of six people who were charged on Tuesday with being members of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) after an investigation by counter-terrorism police in London.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, has been a proscribed organisation since 2001 for its advocation of Kurdish self-rule through both political and armed struggle.

Karatas, a 23-year-old Kurdish rights campaigner, is part of the Centre for Kurdish Progress, a long-established group with links to MPs.

In October this year, he was given access to the parliamentary estate for the first meeting of a new All-Party Parliamentary Group, the APPG on Kurds, chaired by Labour MP for Exeter, Steve Race.

The group is cross-party, with parliamentarians from across the political spectrum listed as members.

In attendance at the meeting were Labour’s first Kurdish MP and science minister Feryal Clark, Labour MP Afzal Khan, Independent MP Shockat Adam and Lord Michael Cashman.

Addressing the room, Karatas said the APPG would arrange for “a delegation to Iraq and Syria upon which MPs and UK officials can meet officials in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and in North East Syria”.

He was also linked to a previous APPG on Kurdistan in Turkey and Syria, which was chaired by former Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle.

His access to parliament is via the Centre for Kurdish Progress, founded by Ibrahim Dogus, who is well-known in Westminster through the annual kebab awards, which is often attended by high-profile political figures.

Mr Dogus is also a Labour councillor who has stood as a parliamentary candidate twice for the party, in 2017 and 2019.

Karatas was one of two women and four men charged on Tuesday with being PKK members after being arrested and detained under the Terrorism Act 2000 on 27 November.

Sky News approached Mr Race and the Labour Party but they declined to comment.