The former Conservative MP and justice minister in the United Kingdom, Crispin Blunt, has pleaded guilty to possessing illegal drugs, including cannabis and crystal meth, after appearing before Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Blunt, 65, admitted to four drug-related offences following a police raid on his Surrey home in October 2023. During the search, officers reportedly recovered the sedative GBL, cannabis, and methamphetamine, commonly known as crystal meth.
At Wednesday’s court hearing, he pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a Class A drug and three counts of possessing Class B drugs. He is due to be sentenced later in the day.
The former MP for Reigate, who served from 1997 to 2024, was originally under investigation on suspicion of rape at the time the drugs were discovered.
However, Surrey Police later confirmed in May last year that no further action would be taken on the allegation after an 18-month probe, citing insufficient evidence.
Blunt lost the Conservative Party whip in October 2023 following his arrest and sat as an independent until he stepped down at the 2024 general election.
He previously served in the government of former UK Prime Minister David Cameron as parliamentary under-secretary of state for prisons and youth justice between 2010 and 2012.
He also chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee from 2015 to 2017 and is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, having spent more than a decade as an officer in the British Army before entering politics.
In court, Blunt delivered a lengthy statement arguing that the charges should never have been brought.
He said,’In the public interest’ He argued he should have been acquitted on the basis that charges for possession of drugs should not exist.
Blunt said,”Politicians have “sat with moral simplicity that drugs are bad… without regard to the appalling consequences of that simple position”,
Blunt said, Prosecutor Malcolm McHaffie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service special crime division, previously said there was sufficient evidence to bring the case to court and that it was “in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings”.
