Conservative MP Bob Stewart has been charged with public order offences relating to a “racially aggravated” incident in December last year.
Police say the 73-year-old has been charged with using threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour and that the offence was racially aggravated.
He was also charged with using threatening or abusive words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
The alleged offences took place outside the Foreign Office’s Lancaster House offices, at an event hosted by the embassy of Bahrain on 14 December.
The Metropolitan Police opened a case following a complaint from activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, who says he is living in exile after being tortured in the Gulf state of Bahrain.
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”.
In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said Mr Stewart, the MP for Beckenham would appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 5 July.
