Conservative MP Crispin Blunt has apologised for criticising the conviction of his fellow MP Imran Ahmad Khan for sexually assaulting a teenage boy.
The former Tory minister said he had “decided to retract my statement” defending Khan after the Wakefield MP was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
Mr Blunt added: “I am sorry that my defence of him has been a cause of significant upset and concern, not least to victims of sexual offences. It was not my intention to do this.”
He also resigned as chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Global LGBT+ Rights. “To be clear I do not condone any form of abuse and I strongly believe in the independence and integrity of the justice system,” he added.
The MP has also removed a post from his website in which he had claimed that Khan was the victim of a “dreadful miscarriage of justice” – where he had also referred to the verdict as “an international scandal”.
Khan was thrown out of the Tory party following the verdict, and Mr Blunt had come under huge pressure from top Conservatives at the party’s HQ to withdraw his statement.
Shortly before the Reigate MP deleted his statement on Tuesday, a senior Tory source said his views were “wholly unacceptable” and “we expect the statement to be retracted first thing this morning”.
Apparently unimpressed by his apology, the LGBT+ Conservatives group said it had suspended Mr Blunt as a patron, pending an investigation and vote by the membership.
“Regardless of whether comments have now be retracted, Crispin Blunt’s statement yesterday was inappropriate, misjudged and in the present circumstances we do not feel it is appropriate for Crispin to remain one of our patrons,” the group said in a statement.
Labour has condemned Mr Blunt’s “disgraceful” defence of Khan. Senior Labour MP Chris Byrant said the Conservatives should launch an investigation and withdraw the whip from Mr Blunt in the meantime.
“The Conservative party need to do a proper investigation into what on earth Crispin thought he was doing,” he told Sky News. “It undermines parliament … when a lawmaker decides that a court of law has behaved completely inappropriately.”
Asked on Times Radio whether Mr Blunt’s apology draws a line under the matter, Mr Bryant said: “I don’t think so,” adding that he had demonstrated “a complete lack of judgement”.
The Labour MP added: “This is a series of cases that we’ve had, where Conservative MPs have suddenly leapt to the defence of their colleague, and the victim has rather been left out in the cold. It was true in the Charlie Elphicke case … And it’s true in this case again.”
Anneliese Dodds, Labour chair, called on Boris Johnson and Tory chair Oliver Dowden to “take action” against the former minister.
Prior to his resignation as chair, members of the APPG on Global LGBT+ Rights – including Mr Bryant and the SNP’s Stewart McDonald and Joanna Cherry – had said they were quitting the cross-party body.
Responding to his apology, the APPG said members had been “shocked” the comments made by Mr Blunt in a personal capacity, and explained that an “extraordinary general meeting” will be held soon to elect a new chair.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court took about five hours to decide Khan, 48, was guilty of sexually assaulting a teenage boy, who is now 29, in 2008.
The court heard how Khan forced the then-teenager to drink gin and tonic, dragged him upstairs, pushed him on to a bed and asked him to watch pornography before the attack at a house in Staffordshire in January 2008.
However, in the now-retracted statement published on his website on Monday, Mr Blunt claimed that the jury’s decision in Khan’s case was “nothing short of an international scandal”.
Mr Blunt, who came out as gay in 2010, had also claimed that the case “relied on lazy tropes about LGBT+ people” and argued the result had “dreadful wider implications” for LGBT+ Muslims “around the world”.
He and fellow Tory MP Sir Peter Bottomley, the father of the Commons, attended court on Monday, while a third Conservative MP, Adam Holloway, earlier provided a character statement used as part of Khan’s defence case.
Asked about comments made by Mr Blunt – and if the government distanced itself from them – defence minister James Heappey replied: “Yes … it’s not something the government associates itself with.”
The minister told Sky News on Tuesday: “In a court of law yesterday Mr Khan was found guilty and I think every one of us who believes in the judicial system and the rule of law has to respect that judgment.”
Mr Heappey also said there were now “mechanisms” through which Khan can be removed from his seat and a by-election forced – referring to recall petitions.
He added: “The way that parliament works is that you are elected as an individual, so his seat in the House of Commons is his until he personally chooses to vacate it.”
A Conservative spokesperson said: “A jury of Mr Khan’s peers has found him guilty of a criminal offence. We completely reject any allegations of impropriety against our independent judiciary, the jury or Mr Khan’s victim.”
Khan’s legal team said he plans to appeal against the conviction.
Mr Bryant said: “I think if I were in his position, I would resign my seat, and not wait for everybody to wait for the appeal. He can fight his appeal outside parliament if he wants to. But I don’t think he’ll ever be able to return to representing his constituents properly.”
