Crispin Jeremy Rupert Blunt (born 15 July 1960) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Reigate from 1997 to 2024.

Blunt first entered the House of Commons at the 1997 general election, when he replaced the then MP Sir George Gardiner, who had been deselected by the Constituency Conservative Association Executive Council and joined the Referendum Party.

[2] However, after a ballot of party members in Reigate, the decision was overturned by a margin of 5–1 and Blunt was reselected as the Conservative candidate for the 2015 general election.

He then attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he won the Queen's Medal, following which he gained a regular commission in the British Army.

[14] During the 1980s, he was stationed in Cyprus, Germany, and Britain, serving as a troop leader, regimental operations officer and armoured reconnaissance squadron commander.

[17] Blunt contested his first Parliamentary seat at the 1992 general election, as the Conservative candidate in West Bromwich East.

In May 2000, he joined the House of Commons Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Select Committee and in July 2003 he was elected Chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council, a position he still occupies.

[15] The new Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith appointed Blunt to the Opposition front bench as Shadow Minister for Northern Ireland in September 2001.

[21] He decided to resign at that time in the expectation that the Conservative Party would make over 500 gains in the 2003 local government elections, but in the belief that these would be achieved in spite of, rather than because of, Duncan Smith's leadership.

[22] The following day he was unanimously reselected by his local party as their prospective parliamentary candidate, but in May 2003, he failed to persuade 25 of his fellow Conservative MPs to call for a vote of confidence.

Blunt became a party whip under Howard, but on 9 June 2005, he took a leave of absence from that role to support the expected leadership bid of Malcolm Rifkind.

[25] When the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition formed a government in 2010, Blunt was appointed as the first Minister of State for Prisons at the Ministry of Justice.

[26] In November 2013, Blunt was re-selected to stand in the 2015 general election for the Conservative Party, having undergone a postal ballot of constituency members.

[27] The lack of support from a majority of the executive council was partly attributed to the allegedly homophobic views of some older Conservative voters in the area.

There is no doubt in my mind that his very public and totally unnecessary announcement that he was 'gay' was the final straw for some members, particularly those in the north of the borough, with whom there had been a number of previous disagreements on policy matters.

I would have just said if anyone had asked me: politicians have a unique lifestyle, it doesn't suit everybody and there is a long history of parliamentary marriages breaking down.

[29] On 19 June 2015, it was announced that Blunt had been elected to the chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee,[30] a post he held until 12 July 2017 when he was defeated by Conservative candidate Tom Tugendhat.

[33] On 11 April 2022, after fellow MP Imran Ahmad Khan was found guilty of a child sex offence, Blunt issued a statement in defence of Ahmad Khan which criticised the verdict, describing it as an "international scandal, with dreadful wider implications for millions of LGBT+ Muslims around the world" and said that it "relied on lazy tropes about LGBT+ people".

[38] Following his arrest on suspicion of rape and possession of controlled substances on 25 October 2023, Blunt had the Conservative Party whip removed, continuing to sit as an independent MP.