BRITAIN: The position of the British Home Secretary appeared under renewed threat last night after his former lover insisted she would testify to the inquiry into allegations that he abused his office to fast-track her Filipino nanny's residency application writes Frank Millar in London.
Amid fresh allegations about a second "messy affair" five years ago with an official who worked for Mr David Blunkett while he was Education Secretary, senior opposition politicians intensified the pressure on Mr Blunkett over the fallout from his affair with Spectator publisher, Mrs Kimberly Quinn.
The Conservative Shadow Home Secretary, Mr David Davis, said it was too early to say if Mr Blunkett was guilty of any of the alleged abuses of his powers, while adding that several of them would be resigning matters if proven.
His colleague Mrs Theresa May, the Conservative spokeswoman on family issues, called on Mr Blunkett to "consider his position". At the same time Labour peer Baroness (Helena) Kennedy and the Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, fuelled the row over the limited scope of the inquiry into allegations against Mr Blunkett presently being conducted by former Treasury official, Sir Alan Budd.
Mr Kennedy said Mr Blunkett's decision to give Mrs Quinn a rail warrant assigned to him as an MP for use by his spouse was "an error of judgment" which would have a "corrosive effect on his position".
The Home Secretary repaid the cost of the two first-class tickets to the Commons authorities last week, having indicated he had thought himself entitled to use them for a partner.
However, speaking about the Blunkett affair for the first time yesterday, Mr Kennedy told GMTV's Sunday Programme: "The corrosive effect on his position, particularly as he is such a pivotal figure in the government. . . I think that's going to be very, very damaging, unfortunately for him personally and without doubt for the overall trust factor for the government as a whole."
Baroness Kennedy meanwhile echoed Tory complaints about the limited scope of the Budd inquiry.
Reviewing the newspapers on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme, the Labour peer said: "It really does look to the public very much as though this is all about whitewashes, and if you want to have an inquiry you get somebody that you know and you make sure it is dealt with in a particular way with an outcome foregone. "I do think it reminds us that we ought to have some set procedures for dealing with these things."
Baroness Kennedy said Sir Alan Budd was "a very fine Treasury man", but added: "I think there are questions which will be raised in the minds of the public about whether this is all a fix."
The Children's Minister, Ms Margaret Hodge, said calls for Mr Blunkett's resignation were "outrageous."
The Health Secretary, Dr John Reid, said people should await the outcome of the Budd inquiry.
"Sir Alan Budd will no doubt conduct his inquiry, admittedly against a background where everyone who called for an inquiry now seems to want to pre-empt the findings," he told Sky TV's Sunday with Adam Boulton programme, "but I think most reasonable people say we have set up an inquiry, let's see what the inquiry says."
Several reports yesterday suggested the inquiry might conclude as early as this week that the visa application for Mrs Quinn's former nanny, Ms Leoncia Casalme, had been fast-tracked, while blaming an over-zealous official in the Home Office.
However Mr Blunkett's hopes for an early resolution of this particular controversy - and his reported offer of a truce in his court battle to gain access to the two-year-old boy he believes is his son - were dashed when Mrs Quinn's husband, Mr Stephen Quinn, told the Sunday Telegraph that she had written to Sir Alan demanding the right to testify.
Mr Quinn was reported saying: "She has written to Budd. I've said to her that it is singularly important that she does this. It would be disgraceful if he wasn't interested in her evidence."