MP defends ‘friend and colleague’ convicted of sexually assaulting boy, 15

A London MP who is chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global LGBT+ Rights has released a statement appearing to defend his “friend” Imran Ahmad Khan, who was today convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy at a party in 2008. Crispin Blunt, MP for Reigate, Redhill, claimed his friend was the victim of a “dreadful miscarriage of justice” and seemed to imply that “Victorian” prejudices against members of the LGBT+ community were to blame.

Wakefield MP Imran Ahmad Khan was found guilty today after a jury heard he forced the victim to drink alcohol, dragged him upstairs and asked him to watch porn before the assault. He was expelled from the Conservative Party soon after the conviction was handed down.

Crispin Blunt MP has spoken out in an unusually damning way about the course of justice in this case. On his website he wrote: “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.

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“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.

“I hope for the return of Imran Ahmad Khan to the public service that has exemplified his life to date. Any other outcome will be a stain on our reputation for justice, and an appalling own goal by Britain as we try to take a lead in reversing the Victorian era prejudice that still disfigures too much of the global statute book.”

In the statement, Blunt seems to be referring to prejudice against the LGBT+ community as the reason for his “friend and colleague’s” conviction, blaming “lazy tropes” and “Victoria era prejudice”. These statements are a stark contrast to the words of many MPs online who have openly condemned the convicted MP and called for an immediate by-election.

Fellow member and vice-president of the All-Parliamentary Group Stewart McDonald MP has tweeted that he is resigning from the group as a direct result of Blunt’s statement: “Parliament needs a respected and robust LGBT group and Crispin can no longer provide that leadership. He should stand down.”

Social media users have already begun criticising the MP for his support of a convicted sex offender. Critics have pointed out that Khan was found guilty in a UK courtroom by a jury, and questioned whether it is right for an MP to be so openly smearing the course of justice.

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