12 April 2022 | NEWS
The Conservative MP for Reigate, Crispin Blunt, has received widespread criticism over his defence of his colleague, fellow Conservartive Member for Wakefield, Imran Ahmad Khan’s sex offence conviction.
On Monday, Khan was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008 at Southwark Crown Court – he intends to appeal against his conviction.
In a statement on his website, which has since been deleted, the former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Youth Justice leapt to the defence of Khan in which he slammed the conviction as a “miscarriage of justice” and that he hopes for his colleague’s “return [to] public service”.
The full statement can be read below.
The MP has since released a reflection of his earlier statement, which reads in part: “I am sorry that my defence of [Khan] has been a cause of significant upset and concern not least to victims of sexual offences. It was not my intention to do this.
“To be clear, I do not condone any form of abuse and I strongly believe in the independence and integrity of the justice system.”
Blunt’s statement goes on to announce his resignation from the LGBT Rights All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), that he chaired, after the resignations of several other MPs who sit on the group following his words.
However, the political blog site Guido Fawkes has published what it states to be an explanation for Blunt’s initial defence of Khan to his local Conservative Association, in which he attempts to outline a “counter-narrative”.
In it, Blunt appears to state that Imran Khan “should not have been charged, far less convicted 14 years after an event that was minor on any scale” and that “this was a rotten day for British justice”.
Following his conviction on Monday, Khan has been expelled from the Conservative Party, meaning he can no longer sit as a Conservative MP and will now sit as an Independent Member in the House of Commons.
The allegation of sexual assault was reportedly made to the party press office days in the lead up to the 2019 General Election, when Khan was first elected to Parliament.
The court heard how he forced a 15-year-old boy at a party to drink gin, before dragging him upstairs and asking him to watch pornography and then assaulting him in 2008, BBC News reports.
At the time of the assault, the police were called but the victim did not wish to pursue the case.
When he found out that Khan was standing for the Conservative Party in 2019, the victim contacted the press office to make the allegation, and upon the MP’s election, he also contacted the police.
