Westminster: Ex-Justice Minister fined for possessing illegal drugs
Former Conservative MP and justice minister Crispin Blunt has been fined after pleading guilty to possessing illegal drugs, including cannabis and crystal meth.
Blunt, 65, admitted to four drug offences at Westminster Magistrates’ Court following a police raid on his Surrey home in October 2023. Officers found the chemical sedative GBL, cannabis, and methamphetamine — commonly known as crystal meth.
He was fined £1,200.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram told Blunt that, as a former prisons and justice minister, he had “served as a role model to all.”
“Your actions have risked undermining confidence in all parliamentarians by breaking the very laws you enacted,” he said.
Blunt, the former MP for Reigate, had been under investigation on suspicion of rape when officers discovered the drugs. He later pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a Class A drug and three counts of possession of Class B drugs.
‘Drug-Fuelled Parties’
In a speech lasting more than 30 minutes, Blunt told the court he had been the victim of a blackmail and extortion plot involving his drug dealer.
He also argued that he should have been acquitted, claiming laws criminalising drug possession should not exist.
Politicians, he said, have “sat with moral simplicity that drugs are bad… without regard to the appalling consequences of that simple position.”
Blunt added that “first-hand experience” — including hosting drug-fuelled chemsex parties at his home in Horley — had informed his views on drug policy reform.
Background
Malcolm McHaffie, head of the CPS 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.”
Surrey Police confirmed in May last year that no further action would be taken over the rape allegation due to insufficient evidence, following an 18-month investigation.
At the time, Blunt said he was “confident” he would not be charged.
Blunt served in David Cameron’s government as parliamentary under-secretary of state for prisons and youth justice from 2010 to 2012, and later chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee from 2015 to 2017.
He lost the Conservative whip in October 2023 after his arrest and subsequently sat as an independent MP.
A graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he stepped down from Parliament at the 2024 general election after a political career that followed more than a decade of service as a British Army officer.
