Blunkett visa row escalates
The controversy over allegations that Home Secretary David Blunkett fast-tracked a visa application by his former lover’s nanny has intensified after documents were obtained by a national newspaper.
The Daily Mail claims to have documents showing how Kimberley Quinn’s nanny, Leoncia Casalme, was granted a visa only 19 days after being told by the Home Office that it would take a year.
Mr Blunkett has categorically denied intervening in the visa application in any way or putting pressure on officials to process it more quickly.
When the allegations first emerged, Mr Blunkett announced an independent inquiry into his conduct – to be headed by ex-Treasury civil servant Alan Budd – to prove that there had been no impropriety.
He has repeated the denials of any impropriety this morning, saying that the documents ‘proved nothing’.
According to the Daily Mail, officials in the Home Office’s integrated casework directorate replied to Miss Casalme’s residency application in April 2003, accepting it as valid.
However, it warned that “because of the high intake of applications and backlog of work” there was a delay of around 12 months.
The newspaper reports that Mrs Quinn, publisher of the Spectator magazine, was in possession of the letter for 24 hours after her nanny received it before handing it back. While it is not known what she did with the letter, it emerged this week that Mrs Quinn later emailed a friend saying “David [Blunkett] fast-tracked” it.
Less than three weeks later, Miss Casalme received another letter telling her she could “now remain indefinitely in the United Kingdom”, the newspaper said.
On Monday, Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed his full confidence in Mr Blunkett and described him as a “first class Home Secretary” who would “continue to do the job with my full support”.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said that if the story is correct “it is very difficult to understand how this can be the normal length of procedure for an application to remain.
“Mr Blunkett will have to explain precisely how this rapid processing of the application came about.” He warned: “If he influenced this matter, his position is untenable.”
Mark Oaten, who speaks on home affairs for the Liberal Democrats, said: “The emergence of new documentary evidence shows that something very unusual took place with this visa application.
“The Home Secretary still denies any wrong doing. It is important that the inquiry looks at the role of the civil service to establish exactly what occurred in this case.”
