Member of Parliament
At the 1997 general election, Blunt was elected to Parliament as Member for Reigate in Surrey, replacing the long-serving strongly euro-sceptic MP George Gardiner, who had been deselected by the local Conservative Party. Blunt and was subsequently appointed to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee. 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, 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.
The new Conservative Party leader 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. On 1 May 2003 he resigned his position on the front bench saying that Duncan Smith was a "handicap" to the Conservatives. His decision to resign at this time, was taken in the expectation that the Conservative Party would make over 500 gains in local government seats, but that these were gained in spite of, rather than because of Iain Duncan Smith (IDS)'s leadership. Blunt timed his resignation so that it did not become public until after the polls closed but before the results were declared. The following day he was unanimously reselected by his local party as their prospective parliamentary candidate but he failed to persuade 25 of his fellow conservative MPs to call for a vote of confidence in May 2003 and he accepted that no challenge for the party leadership would be immediately forthcoming and returned to the backbenches. In November 2003 the challenge came and Michael Howard replaced IDS after a vote of no confidence.
He subsequently became a party whip under Howard but on 9 June 2005 he took leave of absence from that role to support the expected leadership bid of Sir Malcolm Rifkind. However, when Rifkind was knocked out of the leadership race of the Conservatives, Blunt returned to the whips' office and wrote to all Party members in his constituency asking for them to rank the remaining contenders in order of preference so he could best represent his constituents.
Blunt is a former joint chair of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding. The election of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition into Government in 2010 saw Blunt gain a position as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Ministry of Justice. His responsibilities include: Prisons and probation, Youth justice, Criminal law and sentencing policy and Criminal justice. He is also a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group.
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