UK: A defiant David Blunkett last night invoked the full authority of British prime minister Tony Blair in declaring that the continuing row over his business dealings would not force his resignation.
"I have done nothing wrong," insisted Mr Blair's embattled work and pensions secretary: "The pressure is not continuing. The prime minister has made his decision and, no matter what the Conservative Party want, I am not resigning."
That was the message, too, from 10 Downing Street, which maintained Mr Blunkett had acted with integrity and continued to enjoy the prime minister's "full support".
However, the pressure continued to build last night as the Conservatives stepped up their demand for an official inquiry after it emerged that Mr Blunkett had failed to consult the appropriate Whitehall watchdog over a third job, taken during his four-month absence from government following his enforced resignation from the cabinet last December.
Letters published yesterday showed Mr Blunkett had been warned on three occasions that former ministers were obliged to consult the independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments about any positions they wished to take up within two years of leaving government.
This prompted Sir Alistair Graham, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, to conclude Mr Blunkett had broken the ministerial code of conduct when he joined the board of the then little-known company DNA Bioscience just two weeks before this year's general election.
According to estimates this week, the shares then bought for £15,000 (€22,000), and placed in trust for Mr Blunkett's sons, could have been worth as much as £280,000 (€412,000) following the company's expected flotation next year.
On Monday, under clear Downing Street pressure, Mr Blunkett announced he had asked his sons to sell the shares in the DNA testing company, which is a firm that might have hoped to secure government contracts, to avoid "continuing misrepresentation of the position".
And in an effort to draw a line under the affair yesterday, Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "David Blunkett has accepted he made a mistake. The question is, does that mistake stop him doing his job? The prime minister's judgment is that it does not."
However, No 10 was back on the defensive last night as Chris Grayling, the shadow leader of the Commons, wrote again to the prime minister questioning Mr Blunkett's conduct after it emerged Mr Blunkett had also taken a third job while out of office, earning between £15,000 to £20,000 as an adviser to World ORT, an international charity, again without consulting the independent advisory committee.
"I am astonished that Mr Blunkett has broken the ministerial code on yet another occasion," declared Mr Grayling.
"This is getting beyond a joke. Tony Blair cannot claim the ministerial code is important and fail to act over these breaches."
However, Mr Blair's spokesman maintained: "In terms of the third job, that is covered in the sense that his failure to consult the [ independent advisory] committee is a result of the same mistake that he made with the other two jobs."