Crispin Blunt

Crispin Jeremy Rupert Blunt (born 15 July 1960) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Reigate since 1997. 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. On 1 May 2022, he announced he would be standing down at the next general election. In October 2023, he 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. Early life and career Blunt was born in Germany, one of three sons of English parents Adrienne (née Richardson) and Major-General Peter Blunt (1923–2003). He was educated at Wellington College, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he won the Queen's Medal, gaining a regular commission, before reading politics at University College, Durham between 1981 and 1984, where he was elected president of the Durham Union Society in 1983 and graduated with a 2:1 degree. In 1991, he gained an MBA degree at the Cranfield School of Management.