Blunkett ready for return to frontline politics
David Blunkett has spoken of the emotional distress he suffered during the fallout from his affair with Kimberly Quinn.
But the former Home Secretary, who was forced to resign over the sex scandal last December, insists he has recovered emotionally and is ready for a return to front line politics if Prime Minister Tony Blair wants him.
Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Mr Blunkett admitted he had trouble sleeping for weeks following a series of newspaper allegations that he abused his ministerial position during his three-year affair with 44-year old Spectator publisher, Mrs Quinn.
“For weeks and weeks after November 28 I didn’t sleep beyond 4am for a very long time, and it was inevitably taking its toll on all of us who were involved,” said Mr Blunkett.
Commenting on his resignation, after an inquiry found he had intervened in a visa application for his lover’s nanny, Mr Blunkett added: “I faced the most enormous harassment for about seven weeks and I felt very clearly that at that moment in time I couldn’t do justice either to my job as home secretary or to my task as a father and as an individual, so it was in retrospect quite right to step down.”
The Sheffield Brightside MP has been tipped for a return to national politics after being appointed as a key campaigner for Labour in the run-up to the expected May 5 poll.
Mr Blunkett said Mr Blair was keen for him to travel around the country meeting voters during the run up to the anticipated general election.
“You don’t return to the frontline simply on your past, you have to have something to offer the future,” Mr Blunkett told the Guardian.
“In the (election) campaign, I have to get out there and make it clear that, if Tony wants me, I’d be a plus not a minus.”
