Ex-minister 'sorry' for calling Tory MP's sex assault conviction 'a dreadful miscarriage of justice'
A former justice minister has apologised for a now-deleted criticism he posted online about the conviction of fellow Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan, who sexually assaulted a teenage boy.
Tory MP Crispin Blunt has removed and apologised for a post made on his website and Twitter feed in which he had claimed Khan was the victim of a “dreadful miscarriage of justice”, after the Wakefield MP was found guilty on Monday of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008.
Khan was thrown out of the Tory Party following the verdict and Mr Blunt had come under pressure from the Conservative hierarchy to withdraw his statement.
Alongside retracting his initial statement in defence of Imran Ahmad Khan, Mr Blunt has announced his resignation as the LGBTQ+ parliamentary group chairman.
He said in a statement: "It is a particularly difficult time for LGBT+ rights across the world and my statement risks distracting the APPG for Global LGBT+ Rights from its important purpose.
"I have today offered the officers my resignation so a new Chair can be found to continue the work of the group with full force.”
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”.
Mr Blunt has yet to explain why he deleted the message or whether he still holds the view he expressed on Monday.
Labour condemned Mr Blunt’s defence of Khan and members of a cross-party LGBT group that the Reigate MP chairs have quit in protest, with one urging him to resign from his role.
Party leader Sir Keir Starmer said the MP's statement was "abhorrent" and called on the government to "condemn" his comments.
"I would have expected the Conservative Party to be much, much harder about this," he added.
Anneliese Dodds, Labour Party chair and shadow equalities secretary, called Mr Blunt’s comments “disgraceful”.
Will there be a by-election?
A by-election is thought to be likely in Wakefield but it's by no means guaranteed, with either Khan's resignation or his removal as an MP expected by many in Westminster.
Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said it's a "matter for him" if he resigns, because despite being expelled as a Tory he is still entitled to serve his term as an independent MP, so long as he isn't given a custodial sentence.
If he is sentenced to more than a year in prison he will be automatically disqualified to stand as an MP and if he's sentenced to less than a year a recall petition will be triggered.
Under a recall petition, if more than 10% of his constituents register that they'd like him removed as an MP, a by-election will ensue, at which Khan would be eligible to stand.
If he is not given a custodial sentence, he could still be removed as an MP if the House of Commons Committee for Standards suspends him for at least 14 days, which would also trigger a recall petition.
This scenario is unlikely according to ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston, because there is no investigation underway by the commissioner for standards.
Crispin Blunt 'blows up' Parliament's LGBT+ group, says UK Editor Paul Brand.
Members of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Global LGBT+ Rights, including Labour MP Chris Bryant and the SNP’s Stewart McDonald and Joanna Cherry, said they were quitting the cross-party body which Mr Blunt chairs.
UK Editor Paul Brand said Mr Blunt's statement had "blown up" the group at "arguably the most fractious moment for LGBT rights in almost a decade".
Paul was referencing the LGBT community's recent outrage at a government plan to exclude trans people from a ban on conversion therapy.
Mr Bryant described the remarks as “completely inappropriate”.
Urging Mr Blunt to quit as APPG chair, Mr McDonald tweeted: “Parliament needs a respected and robust LGBT group and Crispin can no longer provide that leadership. He should stand down.”
Ms Cherry tweeted that Mr Blunt’s statement was the “last straw” for her membership of the group and that she intended to resign on Tuesday.
In a statement published on his website, Mr Blunt, who came out as gay in 2010, said the jury’s decision in Khan’s case was “nothing short of an international scandal”.
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.
What was said at court?
The court heard how Khan, a gay Muslim elected to Parliament in 2019, 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.
But Mr Blunt, who was at the London court on Monday, said the case “relied on lazy tropes about LGBT+ people” and argued the result had “dreadful wider implications” for LGBT Muslims “around the world”.
The Tory MP said: “I am utterly appalled and distraught at the dreadful miscarriage of justice that has befallen my friend and colleague Imran Ahmad Khan, MP for Wakefield since December 2019.
“His conviction today is nothing short of an international scandal, with dreadful wider implications for millions of LGBT+ Muslims around the world.
“I sat through some of the trial. The conduct of this case relied on lazy tropes about LGBT+ people that we might have thought we had put behind us decades ago.
“As a former justice minister, I was prepared to testify about the truly extraordinary sequence of events that has resulted in Imran being put through this nightmare start to his parliamentary career.”
Sir Peter Bottomley, the father of the House of Commons, who also attended court on Monday, said the final jury verdict should be “respected”.
The veteran Tory MP said he chose to attend the trial “most days” as “no-one should be alone in court”.
He said: “It was not the verdict I anticipated.
“Unless overturned on appeal, the jury verdict following the summing up has to be respected.”
Khan’s legal team said he plans to appeal against the conviction.