MP who defended colleague who groped schoolboy quits LGBT committee

Crispin Blunt confronted a grilling from either side of the home for defending Imran Khan (Image: Getty/PA)

Former justice minister Crispin Blunt has give up an LGBT+ parliamentary group after defending a Tory colleague who sexually abused a teenage boy.

Blunt confronted livid backlash over an announcement on his web site yesterday saying he was ‘appalled and distraught’ on the ‘dreadful miscarriage of justice’ suffered by Imran Ahmad Khan.

The Wakefield MP he was defending pressured a 15-year-old boy to drink gin and tonic earlier than dragging him upstairs in January 2008.

Khan then pushed the kid onto a mattress and requested him to observe pornography earlier than touching his legs and groin, jurors at Southwark Crown Court docket heard.

He was thrown out of the Tory Celebration after being discovered responsible of sexual assault on Monday. Nonetheless, Blunt leapt to his defence, and confronted stress from the Conservative hierarchy to withdraw his assertion.

Shortly earlier than the Reigate MP deleted his assertion on Tuesday, a senior Tory supply stated his views have been ‘wholly unacceptable’, including: ‘We anticipate the assertion to be retracted very first thing this morning.’

This assertion was taken off Blunt’s web site with no clarification (Image: PA)

Initially Blunt provided no clarification for his withdrawal, however as he continued to face criticism from all sides of the home, he issued an apology right this moment.

In an announcement, he stated: ‘On reflection I've determined to retract my assertion defending Imran Ahmad Khan.

‘I'm sorry that my defence of him has been a trigger of serious upset and concern not least to victims of sexual offences. It was not my intention to do that.

‘To be clear I don't condone any type of abuse and I strongly imagine within the independence and integrity of the justice system.’

At a ‘notably tough time for LGBT+ rights internationally’, Blunt stated his assertion may very well be a distraction from the arduous work of the parliamentary group he leads.

Khan was kicked out of the Conservative Celebration after a jury convicted him of sexual assault (Image: PA)

He completed by saying he has provided his resignation as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on World LGBT+ Rights.

Members of the all-party group have give up in protest over Blunt’s preliminary assertion, together with the SNP’s Stewart McDonald, who tweeted: ‘Parliament wants a revered and strong LGBT group and Crispin can now not present that management. He ought to stand down.’

The SNP’s Joanna Cherry tweeted that Blunt’s assertion was the ‘final straw’ for her membership of the group and that she supposed to resign right this moment.

Blunt has now been suspended from LGBT+ Conservatives over his feedback, pending an investigation and a full vote of members at subsequent month’s AGM.

In an announcement the group referred to as Blunt’s feedback ‘inappropriate’ and ‘misjudged’ and stated it doesn’t really feel it's ‘acceptable’ for him to stay a patron.

Labour Celebration chairwoman and shadow equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds referred to as Blunt’s feedback ‘disgraceful’.

She referred to as on Boris Johnson and Tory chairman Oliver Dowden to ‘take motion’ in opposition to the previous prisons minister.

Blunt’s defence of a convicted paedophile was branded ‘disgraceful’ (Image: AFP/Getty Photos)

In an announcement printed on his web site, Blunt, who got here out as homosexual in 2010, stated the jury’s resolution in Khan’s case was ‘nothing wanting a world scandal’.

The jury took about 5 hours to determine Khan, 48, was responsible of sexually assaulting a teenage boy, who's now 29.

Blunt, who was at Southwark Crown Court docket yesterday, stated the case ‘relied on lazy tropes about LGBT+ folks’ and argued the consequence had ‘dreadful wider implications’ for LGBT Muslims like Khan ‘world wide’.

The Tory MP stated: ‘I sat by way of a few of the trial. The conduct of this case relied on lazy tropes about LGBT+ those that we'd have thought we had put behind us many years in the past.

‘As a former justice minister, I used to be ready to testify in regards to the actually extraordinary sequence of occasions that has resulted in Imran being put by way of this nightmare begin to his parliamentary profession.’

The assertion could also be gone from Blunt’s web site, however loads of copies are making their approach round social media (Image: PA)

Sir Peter Bottomley, the daddy of the Home of Commons, who additionally attended court docket on Monday, stated the ultimate jury verdict must be ‘revered’.

The veteran Tory MP stated he selected to attend the trial ‘most days’ as ‘nobody must be alone in court docket’.

He added: ‘It was not the decision I anticipated. Until overturned on enchantment, the jury verdict following the summing up needs to be revered.’

Khan’s authorized workforce stated he plans to enchantment in opposition to the conviction.

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