Over his 26 years as a Tory MP, Crispin Blunt – MP for Reigate in Surrey – has long been known for his liberal views that are often at odds with that of his own party, from supporting gay rights to more recently claiming that the UK could be complicit in war crimes if it does not do more to "restrain" Israel.
This week, the former army officer and the uncle of Hollywood actress Emily Blunt made headlines again, making the somewhat unusual move of revealing that he was the MP who had been arrested by Surrey police on suspicion of rape and possession of illegal drugs.
"I have now been interviewed twice in connection with this incident, the first time three weeks ago, when I initially reported my concern over extortion. The second time was earlier this morning under caution following arrest," Blunt, 63, said in a statement on Thursday. "The arrest was unnecessary as I remain ready to cooperate fully with the investigation that I am confident will end without charge."
So who is Blunt, exactly, and what was his background before politics?
A former army officer with a Hollywood actress niece
It was 1997 when Crispin Blunt first came to most voters' attention, after winning a safe Tory seat in Reigate, Surrey.
The election was his second attempt at entering politics, after failing to win over the voters of West Bromwich East five years earlier, in 1992. To learn the ropes, he went on to spend four years working as a special adviser for then-defence secretary Malcolm Rifkind before winning his second run at Parliament – quite the sidestep from his military background.
Until that point, German-born Blunt – the son of a major general and uncle of Devil Wears Prada and Mary Poppins actress Emily Blunt – had spent more than a decade serving in the 13th/18th Royal Hussars after enrolling at Sandhurst military academy at the age of 18 on leaving school at Wellington College.
He won the Queen's Medal at Sandhurst before going on to read politics at University College, Durham, between 1981 and 1984, where he became president of the university's debating club, Durham Union Society.
He went onto gain an MBA degree at the Cranfield School of Management before being commissioned as an officer in the Royal Hussars, serving in Cyprus and Germany during the 1980s.
He resigned his commission as a captain in 1990 to move into politics.
Leaving his wife and coming out as gay
Blunt came out as gay in 2010, ending his 20-year marriage to his wife Victoria – mother of their two then-teenage children Claudia and Frederick – to "come to terms with [his] own homosexuality".
Blunt was the 11th Conservative MP to go public with his homosexuality at the time, but the announcement was almost career ending, with a senior member of Blunt's local association describing his decision to publicly announce his sexuality as "totally unnecessary" and the final straw for some members. "It is a private matter and it shouldn't have been put into the public domain," one of them said at the time.
Who is Crispin Blunt? The Tory MP and former Army officer who left his wife of 20 years after coming out as gay - and has been arrested on suspicion of 'rape and drug offences' https://t.co/jSd8gLLd4j pic.twitter.com/Ud3deflCya
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) October 27, 2023
But then-Prime Minister David Cameron and his party leaders backed Blunt and he kept his job as junior justice minister under the coalition, despite having been referred to as the thorn in the side of the Tory leadership for some years.
The month before his marriage announcement, Blunt had hit the headlines for suggesting that taxpayers' money should be spent on parties attended by criminals in prisons. Downing Street officials promptly suggested he had spoken out of turn and described him as a "dead man walking" who would most likely be fired in Cameron's next reshuffle.
Blunt went on to keep his job, with a Downing Street spokesman confirming that Blunt's marriage announcement a few weeks later was an "entirely personal issue" and that the Prime Minister "continue[d] to have confidence in Crispin Blunt".
Blunt lost his job in the 2012 reshuffle two years later and has not returned to government since.
Gay rights, a liberal drugs policy and backing Palestine
Fighting for gay rights. Backing a more liberal drugs policy. Calling on the UK government to do more to "restrain" Israel.
These are some of the causes Blunt has campaigned for in the years since moving onto the backbenches.
As chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for drug policy reform, he has called for the Class B drug cannabis to be legalised, and became the first MP to "out [himself] as a poppers user", arguing that poppers should not be banned to prevent gay men turning to riskier sex drugs. "I use poppers. I out myself as a user of poppers. I am astonished to find it [the Government] is proposing it to be banned and so would many other gay men," he told the Commons at the time.
He has also made emotional speeches about the treatment of gay people in the army in parliamentary debates. "I found a way of accommodating myself, the laws at the time and the rules of society at the time," he told MPs earlier this year of having to hide his sexuality in the military.
But Blunt was forced to resign as chairman of the LGBT parliament group last year after saying he was "distraught" at the news that fellow Tory MP Imran Khan had been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. "I am utterly appalled and distraught at the dreadful miscarriage of justice that has befallen my friend and colleague Imran Ahmad Khan," he said after the verdict, provoking uproar amongst his colleagues. Blunt later apologised.
Last year he came the first Tory MP to publicly call for Liz Truss to quit, and more recently he has been a rare Tory voice backing the Palestinians, claiming that the UK risks being complicit in war crimes if it does not do more to "restrain" Israel. "If you know that a party is going to commit a war crime – and this forcible transfer of people is a precise breach of one of the statutes that governs international law and all states in this area – then you are making yourself complicit," he said.
Blunt has since been arrested and questioned by Surrey police over an allegation of rape and possession of controlled substances this week, vowing to clear his name and "co-operate fully" with the investigation. “It has been reported that an MP was arrested yesterday in connection with an allegation of rape,” he wrote in a statement posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. “I am confirming that MP was me.”
He has had the whip suspended by the Tories and been asked to stay away from the parliamentary estate.
