Crispin Jeremy Rupert Blunt (born 15 July 1960) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Reigate from 1997 to 2024. Formerly a member of the Conservative Party, he was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Youth Justice within the Ministry of Justice from 2010 to 2012 and chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee from 2015 until 2017.
Blunt first entered the House of Commons at the 1997 general election, when he replaced the then MP Sir George Gardiner, who had been deselected by the Constituency Conservative Association Executive Council and joined the Referendum Party. In 2013, Blunt was deselected by the Constituency Executive Council, with speculation that this was due to his public announcement that he was gay. However, after a ballot of party members in Reigate, the decision was overturned by a margin of 5–1 and Blunt was reselected as the Conservative candidate for the 2015 general election.
In October 2023, Blunt was arrested on suspicion of rape and possession of controlled substances, and released on conditional bail. He subsequently had the Conservative Party whip removed, continuing to sit as an independent MP until the dissolution of Parliament in May 2024. Blunt did not stand for re-election at the subsequent general election. In May 2025, the investigation into alleged rape was dropped by the police due to lack of evidence.
In March 2026 at Westminster Magistrates' Court, Blunt admitted four drugs charges, including possession of crystal meth, GBL, amphetamine, and cannabis, that were found at his home following a chemsex party. He was convicted on all four counts and fined £1200. Crispin stated that it was the person who sold him the drugs that subsequently falsely accused him of rape as part of a blackmail and extortion attempt, and that he did go to the police at the time but that the police was unable to help him.
Contents
Early life and military service
Blunt was born on 15 July 1960 in West Germany, one of three sons of English parents Adrienne (née Richardson) and Major-General Peter Blunt (1923–2003). His niece is the actress Emily Blunt.
He was educated at Wellington College, an independent school in Berkshire in the United Kingdom. He then attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he won the Queen's Medal, following which he gained a regular commission in the British Army. As an in-service degree, he studied politics at University College, Durham between 1981 and 1984, where he was elected president of the Durham Union Society in 1983. He graduated with an upper second-class honours degree. In 1991, he gained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree at the Cranfield School of Management.
Blunt was commissioned as an officer in the British Army on 4 August 1979 as a second lieutenant. Having been commissioned into the General List, he transferred to the 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary's Own) on 8 March 1980, and his regular commission was confirmed. He was promoted to lieutenant on 4 August 1981, and to captain on 4 February 1986. During the 1980s, he was stationed in Cyprus, Germany, and Britain, serving as a troop leader, regimental operations officer and armoured reconnaissance squadron commander. He resigned his commission on 24 September 1990, and was appointed to the Reserve of Officers.
Political career
Blunt contested his first Parliamentary seat at the 1992 general election, as the Conservative candidate in West Bromwich East, but was not successful. From 1991 to 1992, Blunt was a representative of the Forum of Private Business. In 1993, he was appointed a special adviser to Malcolm Rifkind, the Secretary of State for Defence, and worked in the same capacity when Rifkind became Foreign Secretary from 1995 to 1997.
Member of Parliament
At the 1997 general election, Blunt was elected to Parliament as Member for Reigate in Surrey, succeeding the long-serving strongly Eurosceptic MP Sir George Gardiner, who had been deselected by the local Conservative Party. Blunt was subsequently appointed to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee.
In July 1997, he was elected as Secretary of the Conservative Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Committee and the Conservative Middle East Council. In May 2000, he joined the House of Commons Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Select Committee and in July 2003 he was elected Chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council.
The new Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith appointed Blunt to the Opposition front bench as Shadow Minister for Northern Ireland in September 2001. In July 2002, he was appointed as deputy to Tim Yeo, Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. On 1 May 2003 he resigned his position on the front bench, saying that Duncan Smith was a "handicap" to the Conservatives. He decided to resign at that time in the expectation that the Conservative Party would make over 500 gains in the 2003 local government elections, but in the belief that these would be achieved in spite of, rather than because of, Duncan Smith's leadership. Blunt timed his resignation so that it became public after the polls closed but before the results were declared.
The following day he was unanimously reselected by his local party as their prospective parliamentary candidate, but in May 2003, he failed to persuade 25 of his fellow Conservative MPs to call for a vote of confidence. He accepted that no challenge for the party leadership would be immediately forthcoming and returned to the back benches. In November 2003, Michael Howard replaced Duncan Smith after a vote of no confidence.
Blunt became a party whip under Howard, but on 9 June 2005, he took a leave of absence from that role to support the expected leadership bid of Malcolm Rifkind. However, when Rifkind was knocked out of the party leadership contest, Blunt returned to the Whips' office and wrote to all party members in his constituency asking them to rank the remaining contenders in order of preference so he could best represent his constituents.
Blunt is a former joint chair of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding. When the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition formed a government in 2010, Blunt was appointed as the first Minister of State for Prisons at the Ministry of Justice. His responsibilities included prisons and probation, youth justice, criminal law and sentencing policy, and criminal justice. He was also a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group.
Political views
In 1998, Blunt argued against the equal age of consent for homosexuals and heterosexuals, stating that "It is also clear that there is a much greater strand of homosexuality than of heterosexuality which depends for its gratification on the exploitation of youth". In 2004, he was also absent for votes on legalising (same-sex) civil partnerships and allowing marriages to remain valid if they became a same-sex marriage after the granting of a Gender Recognition Certificate. In June 2016, Blunt championed LGBT rights, during the campaigning of the EU referendum, stating that the UK would be the "world's leading proponents of LGBTI rights, in or out of the EU".
Blunt's voting record in Parliament had previously been broadly unsympathetic towards gay rights. He later stated regret for that part of his voting record. He became Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights.
Blunt was one of the most prominent Conservative advocates of transgender rights. He argued that supporting transgender individuals was an extension of the party's tradition of supporting individual liberty.
Crisp repeatedly opposed the renewal of the UK Trident nuclear weapons programme.
In January 2016, he stated that he uses poppers, during a parliamentary debate that discussed banning them along with other legal highs. He became chair of both the Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group and the All Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform. During his 2026 trial for drug possession, at which he was convicted, he asserted that all drugs ought to be legal.
A long-term Eurosceptic, Blunt issued a pamphlet in 1998 when first elected to parliament which called for an in-out referendum.
He voted against the Cameron–Clegg coalition government in 2013 on the issue of British military intervention in the Syrian civil war. He was Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Miscarriages of Justice; Kurdistan in Turkey and Syria.
Personal life
Family and interests
Blunt married Victoria Jenkins in September 1990 in Kensington, and they have a daughter and son. In August 2010, he announced that he was leaving his wife, in order "to come to terms with his homosexuality". They divorced in 2025.
Blunt is a cricketer, a former member of the Parliamentarians team. He is a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club.
Legal issues
In October 2023, Blunt was arrested by Surrey Police on suspicion of rape and possession of drugs. He was released on police bail pending further investigation. He had the Conservative Party whip removed, and subsequently sat as an independent MP for the remainder of the parliamentary session. Blunt said that he expected to be cleared, and that he had previously reported an attempt of extortion to the police. In April 2024, it was reported that Blunt had not had his bail extended, and that the police were continuing with their investigation. In May 2025, the police dropped their investigation into allegations of rape, due to lack of evidence, but said that they would continue their investigation into the suspicion of possession of controlled substances.
In March 2026 the Crown Prosecution Service announced that Blunt had been charged with one count of possessing a class A drug (methamphetamine) and three counts of possessing class B drugs (GBL, cannabis, and amphetamine), found at his home following a chemsex party. He pleaded guilty to the charges at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 25 March 2026, and was convicted on all four counts and fined £1200. Crispin said that it was the dealer who sold him the drugs that subsequently falsely accused him of rape as part of a blackmail and extortion attempt, and that he did go to the police at the time but that they were unable to help him.