Crispin Blunt

Biography

Crispin Blunt was born in 1960, and is married to Victoria with two children, Claudia and Freddie. He was educated at Wellington College, and The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he won the Queen's Medal, gaining a Regular Commission, before reading Politics at the University of Durham between 1981 and 1984, where he was elected President of the Union Society in 1983 and graduated with a 2/1. In 1991 he gained an MBA at Cranfield University School of Management.

In 1979 Crispin Blunt was commissioned as an Army Officer into the 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary's Own) and served until 1990. During the 1980's he was stationed in Cyprus, Germany and the UK, serving as a Troop Leader, Regimental Operations Officer and Armoured Reconnaissance Squadron Commander, resigning his commission as a Captain in 1990.

In 1992 Crispin Blunt contested his first Parliamentary seat in West Bromwich East for the Conservative Party. Between 1991-1992 Crispin was a self employed representative of Forum of Private Business, and a Political Consultant. In 1993 Crispin was appointed as Special Adviser to Malcolm Rifkind the Secretary of State for Defence, and worked in the same capacity when Malcolm Rifkind became Foreign Secretary between 1995 and 1997.

In May 1997 Crispin Blunt was elected to Parliament as Member for Reigate in Surrey and was subsequently appointed to the House of Commons Defence Select Commmittee. In July 1997 he was elected as Secretary of the Conservative Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Committee and the Conservative Middle East Council. In May 2000 Crispin joined the House of Commons Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Select Committee.

In June 2001 Crispin Blunt was re elected as Member of Parliament for Reigate with an increased majority of 8025. Iain Duncan Smith appointed him to the Opposition front bench as Shadow Minister for Northern Ireland in September 2001. In July 2002 he was appointed as deputy to Tim Yeo, Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, where he had shadow ministerial responsibility for trade, energy and science. Crispin Blunt resigned this position in May 2003 and served again on the Defence Select Committee from December 2003 to October 2004, when Crispin returned to the Conservative front bench as an Opposition Whip under Michael Howard.

In May 2005 Crispin was returned as the MP for Reigate with an increased majority.

In June 2005 Crispin resigned as an Opposition Whip in order to support Sir Malcolm Rifkind in the Conservative Party leadership contest.

Crispin Blunt became Chairman of the Conservative Middle East Council in 2004 and is the Treasurer of the Conservative Party Friends of India.

Crispin's main enthusiasms and occupations away from work are his family and cricket. Crispin plays for the Lords and Commons team, and the Reigate Priory Cavaliers. Other interests include travel, bridge, food and wine and historical novels.

Crispin Blunt - Working for Reigate

• Crispin has campaigned hard to protect the environment of the constituency and the quality of life of the people of Reigate. He was at the forefront of the successful campaign to prevent the building of a waste incinerator at Copyhold in 2001. This issue seems to come round every five years and he is getting ready for the next campaign.

• He successively lobbied the government to spare Reigate from the ill-thought through plans for a Central Railway freight line through the constituency.

• Crispin also joined other Surrey MPs in the campaign to prevent the extension of Gatwick Airport and against the proposed international airport at Redhill aerodrome. Crispin challenged the Transport Minister, Alastair Darling, with some 6,000 letters he had received from constituents who were concerned at the proposals. This campaign resulted in success in the conclusions of the Air Transport White Paper of 2004.

• Crispin has lead Surrey MPs and senior police officers to successive meetings with the Police Minister to challenge the poor provision for Surrey police, which suffered heavy spending cuts because of the government's unfair funding policies. He also recently spent a week on the beat with police in Reigate and Redhill.

• Crispin has consistently challenged the government on health issues and in particular on the disastrous delay to reorganise health care provision which has left East Surrey Hospital in permanent state of emergency. He has exposed the politically motivated decision by Labour, to postpone changes to healthcare provision, which placed patients' lives at risk

• Crispin campaigned to save the Reigate Post Office which will open on a new site in May 2005. He continues to expose the unfair funding offered to schools in Surrey and other public services and campaigns to remedy this.

For photographs, click here.