David Blunkett resigns
Home Secretary David Blunkett has resigned from the Government.
Mr Blunkett has been under mounting pressure in recent days, which came to a head on Wednesday morning, with the publication of allegations that an Austrian tourist visa for the nanny of the Home Secretary’s former lover had been rushed through.
Wednesday’s allegations – published in the Daily Mail – followed on from allegations that the same nanny’s residency application had been rushed through and that Mr Blunkett had misused Parliamentary rail permits on behalf of his former lover, Kimberley Quinn.
Mr Blunkett is also involved in an access battle in relation to Mrs Quinn’s son, whom he claims is his.
Support within the Government for Mr Blunkett had appeared to be waning in recent days, particularly in the wake of revelations by biographer Stephen Pollard about disparaging remarks the Home Secretary had made about Cabinet colleagues.
In a statement on Wednesday evening, Mr Blunkett explained that an email had come to light in the course of the Budd inquiry’s investigations showing that the leave to remain application had indeed been fast tracked.
He stated, “the system in the end did fast track that particular application along with many others”, maintaining nonetheless that neither he nor any member of Home Office staff was to blame.
The email described the situation that ensued as “no favours, but slightly quicker”, he explained, acknowledging, “once If found that out yesterday, I realised that I had to resign”.
The Home Secretary stated that he was resigning because his integrity was beginning to be questioned.
He also said that: “It is important that nobody in this department is blamed, people did what they think was right”
“I’m overwhelmed by the number of people who had wished me well”, Mr Blunkett added. Saying: “I owe it them that I am actually honest and open and get out of the situation”.
Commenting on the resignation, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Mark Oaten, said that the resignation was a “personal tragedy” but had become “inevitable”.
Mr Oaten said: “A Government which is seeking to highlight the home affairs agenda in the run up to a likely general election, was never going to be able to sit comfortably with a Home Secretary so damaged in his office by a series of personal misjudgements and who was so damaging in his assessments of his own colleagues.
“David Blunkett was one of the most authoritarian figures to have been Home Secretary in recent decades. His successor must build a cross-party consensus to tackle crime and terrorism rather than just pursuing headline grabbing pet projects.”
Resignation statement in full
This statement was issued by Mr Blunkett to the Press Association just after 1800 GMT this evening.
“When the issue of the application for ILR (indefinite leave to remain) for Ms Casalme emerged on November 28, I immediately asked for an inquiry to be set up. Sir Alan Budd has undertaken that inquiry over the last two weeks.
The key issue has always been whether I used my public office for private benefit.
Since these issues were first raised, I have always given my honest recollection of the facts, on the record as I remembered them.
At that time and subsequently I said that the issue of Ms Casalme’s application was not taken up by my office beyond it being read to me initially. These statements have been based on the recollections of myself and the officials in my office at the time.
Yesterday, Sir Alan Budd told me there had indeed been a fax and an exchange of emails between my office and the immigration and nationality directorate, not based on the application form as originally alleged but on the subsequent letter (informing her of a possible 12-month delay) of which I was always aware but did not remember holding a copy. I have no recollection of dealing with this in any way.
However, whether or not I asked for any action to be taken is irrelevant to the inference that can be drawn.
Given I have no recollection of issuing instructions to deal with the application, but only to continuing the elimination of the backlog in general, the easy thing would be to hide behind my officials. I will not do such a thing. In no way is my office or any individual within the department to blame for what happened.
I believe these issues would never have been raised had I not decided in September that I could not walk away from my youngest son. I could not live with myself or believe I had done the best for him in the long term if I had abandoned my relationship with him. I only sought continued access to him through the courts, as I made clear two weeks ago, because all other avenues had been denied me.
For 34 years, I have built my political career and earned the trust of the people I have served through being honest and truthful. Everything I have said in the last few weeks about this application I have believed to be true based on my own recollections and those of others despite the frenzy of allegations made in the media against me.
I have always been honest about my recollection of events. But any perception of this application being speeded up requires me to take responsibility.
That is why with enormous regret I have tendered my resignation to the Prime Minister today. I want to thank the thousands of people who have contacted me over the last weeks with such supportive messages. I would also like to thank my ministerial and parliamentary colleagues.
Above all I want to thank my sons and my closest friends for the tremendous support they have given me. In particular I want to thank the Prime Minister – my friend and the most outstanding international politician of our age. It has been an honour to serve him and the Labour government I worked so hard to help create.”
