David Blunkett (born 6 June 1947) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
Labour politicianThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
, who has been the
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
for Sheffield Brightside since 1987.
BlindBlindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
since birth and from a poor family in one of
Sheffield'sSheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base...
most deprived districts, he rose to become
Education SecretaryThe Secretary of State for Education and Skills was the chief minister of the Department for Education and Skills in the United Kingdom government....
in
Tony Blair'sAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
first CabinetTony Blair was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for three successive parliamentary terms from 1997-2007. His Cabinet was reshuffled for each new parliament as well as changed during the three periods.-The Cabinet:Cabinets listed chronologically=...
from 1997 to 2001, and then
Home SecretaryThe Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
from 2001 to 2004, when he resigned after a scandal. Following the
2005 general electionThe United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect members to the House of Commons.The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a reduced overall majority of 66 and they failed to gain any new seats...
, he was appointed
Secretary of State for Work and PensionsThe Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is a post in the UK cabinet, responsible for the Department for Work and Pensions. It was created on 8 June 2001 by the merger of the Employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security.The Ministry of...
, but was again forced to resign on after a series of reports about his external business interests during his brief time outside the cabinet.
Early life
Born in
SheffieldSheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base...
,
South YorkshireSouth Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and the city of Sheffield...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Blunkett grew up in an underprivileged family and in 1959, he endured a family tragedy when his father was gravely injured in an industrial accident in which he fell into a vat of boiling water while at work as a foreman for the East Midlands Gas Board and died a month later. This left the surviving family in poverty, especially since the board refused to pay compensation for two years because he was working past retirement age (67).
Blind since birth, and educated at schools for the blind in Sheffield and Shrewsbury, Blunkett's chances in life seemed limited. Following his father's death, he was sent on assessment to the School for the Blind in
WorcesterWorcester is a city and county town of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some 30 miles southwest of Birmingham, 29 miles north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people...
(
New College WorcesterNew College Worcester is a residential secondary school for students, aged 11–19, who are blind or partially sighted. It caters for around 80 students including those who have other special needs or disabilities along with their visual impairment. It is located in the city of Worcester, ...
), where he failed to gain entry. His failed assessment is said to be partly deliberate, due to his rebellious nature and dislike of
public schoolsAn independent school in the United Kingdom is a school that is not financed by taxpayers or through the taxation system by local or national government, and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so not...
. However, he later attended the Royal National College for the Blind in
ShrewsburyShrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is home to 70,689 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
. Indeed, he was apparently told at school that one of his few options in life was to become a lathe operator. Nevertheless, he won a place at the
University of SheffieldThe University of Sheffield is a leading research university, located in Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Ranked within the World's top 70 Universities published by THE - QS World University Rankings and constantly ranked amongst the top 20 universities in Britain and Europe according to The...
, where he gained a
BABachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
honours degree in Political Theory and Institutions; one of his lecturers was
Bernard CrickSir Bernard Rowland Crick was a British political theorist and democratic socialist whose views were often summarised as "politics is ethics done in public"...
. He entered local
politicsPolitics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic and religious institutions...
on graduation. He worked as a clerk typist between 1967 and 1969 and as a lecturer in industrial relations and politics between 1973 and 1981.
Local council
Blunkett became the youngest-ever
councillorA councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council. Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman...
on
Sheffield City CouncilSheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors...
, being elected in 1970 at the age of 22 whilst a teacher. He served on Sheffield City Council from 1970 to 1988, becoming Leader from 1980 to 1987 and on South Yorkshire County Council from 1973 to 1977. This was a time of decline for Sheffield's
steelSteel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
industry. The Conservative MP for Sheffield Hallam, Sir
Irvine PatnickSir Cyril Irvine Patnick, known as Irvine Patnick, OBE is a British businessman and former Conservative Party politician....
, coined the phrase "
People's Republic of South YorkshireThe People's Republic of South Yorkshire or The Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, is a satirical reference to Sheffield. It refers to the left-wing Labour administration of Sheffield City Council during the 1980s, under the leadership of David Blunkett.The expression is said to have been...
" to describe the
left-wing politicsIn politics, left-wing, political left, leftist and the Left are terms used to describe a number of positions and ideologies. They are most commonly used to refer to support for changing traditional social orders or for creating a more egalitarian distribution of wealth and privilege...
of its local government; Sheffield was designated as a nuclear-free zone. Blunkett became known as the leader of one of the furthest left of the Labour councils, which was regularly denounced as "loony left" by the newspapers of the
rightIn politics, right-wing, political right, rightist and the Right are terms used to describe a number of positions and ideologies. They are most commonly used to refer to support for preserving traditional or cultural values and customs or for maintaining some form of social hierarchy or private...
. He built up support within the Labour Party during his time as the council's leader during the 1980s and was elected to the Labour Party's
National Executive CommitteeThe National Executive Committee or NEC is the chief administrative body of the UK Labour Party. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affiliated trade unions, the Parliamentary Labour Party and European Parliamentary Labour Party, Constituency Labour Parties,...
.
Member of Parliament
At the
1987 general electionThe United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987 and was the third consecutive victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher...
he was elected
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
(MP) for Sheffield Brightside with a large majority in a safe Labour seat. He became a party spokesman on
local governmentLocal governments are administrative office that are smaller than a state. The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government....
, joined the shadow cabinet in 1992 as
Shadow Health SecretaryThe Shadow Secretary of State for Health is an office within British politics held by a member of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. The duty of the office holder is to scrutinise the actions of the government's Secretary of State for Health and develop alternative policies. The office holder is a...
and became Shadow Education Secretary in 1994. Combining
reformingA reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society rather than rapid or fundamental changes. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements.Reformists' ideas are often...
zeal with
social conservatismSocial conservatism is a political or moral ideology that believes government and/or society have a role in encouraging or enforcing traditional values or behaviors based on the belief that these are what keep people civilized and decent. A second meaning of the term social conservatism developed...
, he became a favourite of new party leader
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
.
Education secretary
After Labour's
landslide victoryIn politics, a landslide victory is the victory of a candidate or political party by an overwhelming margin in an election.-Australia:...
in the
1997 general electionThe UK general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992. The Labour Party won the general election in a landslide victory with 418 seats, the most seats the party has ever held...
, he became the UK's first blind cabinet minister as Secretary of State for Education and Employment. The role of education secretary was a vital one in a government whose
prime ministerThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
had in 1996 described his priority as "education, education, education" and which had made reductions in school class sizes a pledge. In the event it was
higher educationHigher education refers to a level of education that is provided by universities, vocational universities, community colleges, liberal arts colleges, institutes of technology and other collegiate level institutions, such as vocational schools, trade schools and career colleges, that award academic...
that proved to be the most controversial issue for Blunkett as he moved towards the imposition of tuition fees at public universities which had previously been free.
Blunkett reflected his social conservatism and support for the traditional family in government policies on sex education.
In 1999, he offended liberal opinion over his desire that sex education should not be pursued until children have left primary school at 11, reportedly arguing that childhood, the "age of innocence", should not be compromised by "graphic" sex education. In 2000, while attempting to cool opposition to the proposed abolition of the
Local Government Act 1988The United Kingdom Local Government Act of 1988 was famous for introducing the controversial Section 28 into law. In terms of the section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, Local Authorities were prohibited from promoting in specified category of schools, "the teaching of the acceptability of...
's
Section 28Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 was a controversial amendment to the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1986, enacted on 24 May 1988 and repealed on 21 June 2000 in Scotland, and on 18 November 2003 in the rest of the UK by section 122 of the Local Government Act 2003...
on the "promotion" of homosexuality in schools, he issued guidelines on the importance of 'family values' in teaching children sex education.
Home secretary
At the start of the Labour government's second term in 2001, Blunkett was promoted to Home Secretary, fulfilling an ambition of his. Observers saw him as a rival to
Chancellor of the ExchequerThe Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called The Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
Gordon Brown'sJames Gordon Brown is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party...
hopes to succeed Blair as the next Labour Party leader and potential Prime Minister.
Being tough on
immigrationImmigration is the arrival of new individuals into a habitat or population. It is a biological concept and is important in population ecology, differentiated from emigration and migration.-As a political term:...
and asylum was important for Blunkett during his time at the
Home OfficeThe Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security and order. As such it is responsible for the police, United Kingdom Borders Agency and MI5. It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism...
. In December 2001, he controversially called for immigrants to develop a greater "sense of belonging" to Britain. In April 2002, he proposed new powers which he claimed would curb
illegal immigrationIllegal immigration is immigration across national borders in a way that violates the immigration laws of the destination country. Illegal immigrants are also known as illegal aliens to differentiate them from legal aliens...
and unfounded claims for
political asylumUnder the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality,...
.
Meanwhile, his department in Sheffield was accepting immigration applications with only cursory security checks. When a whistle-blower made this public, both the whistle blower and one of Blunkett's subordinates lost their posts, but Blunkett survived.
Another controversial area for Blunkett was
civil libertiesCivil liberties are rights in Freedom that protect an individual from the government of the nation in which they reside. Civil liberties set limits on government so that its members cannot abuse their power and interfere unduly with the lives of private citizens.Common civil liberties include the...
, which he famously described as "airy fairy". As Education Secretary, he had repeatedly expressed the intention that, were he to become Home Secretary, he would make the then-incumbent
Jack StrawJack Straw , British politician.Jack Straw may also be:* Jack Straw , English* "Jack Straw" * Jack Straw * Jack Straw Foundation, American public radio foundation* Jackstraws, game pick-up sticks...
, who had been criticised for being hard-line, seem overly
liberalLiberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history...
.
On 15 January 2003, he was at the centre of controversy again when at a gathering of Asian and Black Home Office Employees in London he made a joke: "
Colin JacksonColin Ray Jackson
CBE is a Welsh former sprint and hurdling athlete of Jamaican, Maroon, Taino, and Scottish ancestry, who now works as a sports commentator for athletics and television presenter predominantly for the BBC. Between 1993 and 2006 he held the world record in the 110...
succeeded, despite being
WelshWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
". The comment caused great controversy amongst senior
Welsh nationalistsWelsh nationalism refers to a nationalist stance applied to Wales or the ethnic Welsh people. It emphasizes the distinctiveness of Wales in its language, culture, and history...
but the Labour Party rallied around Blunkett and the matter was quietly dropped.
In 2003, he announced an extension of the
Regulation of Investigatory PowersThe Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, regulating the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation, and covering the interception of communications...
Act, which critics condemned as a "snoopers' charter". His
Criminal Justice Act 2003The Criminal Justice Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a wide ranging measure introduced to modernise many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland and Northern Ireland....
reduced legal safeguards such as the right to
trial by juryTrial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
and
double jeopardyDouble jeopardy is a procedural defense that forbids a defendant from being tried twice for the same crime on the same set of facts...
rules. He also attempted to introduce compulsory
national identity cardsThe United Kingdom National Identity Card is a personal identification document and European Union travel document.The card requirement was established by the Identity Cards Act 2006....
(initially called "entitlement cards", though this
euphemismA euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener, or in the case of Doublespeak, to make it less troublesome for the speaker...
was later dropped). The aftermath of terrorist attacks in the USA was offered as a justification to pass this controversial legislation, though no compulsion to carry identity cards was planned.
These measures earned him the
nicknameA nickname is a descriptive name given in place of or in addition to the official name of a person, place or thing. It can also be the familiar or truncated form of the proper name, which may sometimes be used simply for convenience A nickname (also spelled "nick name") is a descriptive name...
'Big Blunkett' from parts of the tabloid press, a reference to the
OrwellianThe adjective Orwellian describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society...
concept of
Big BrotherBig Brother is a fictional character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the enigmatic dictator of Oceania, a totalitarian state taken to its utmost logical consequence - where the ruling elite wield total power for its own sake over the inhabitants.In the society that Orwell describes,...
.
Lord Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police during Blunkett's tenure as Home Secretary, said of him "If you are ever asked to meet with Blunkett, under no circumstances should you go alone...he is a bully and a liar".
He also introduced plans to introduce criminalisation of possession of what the Government has labelled
"extreme" adult pornography"Extreme pornography" is a term introduced by the UK Government in Part 5, Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which made possession of such images a criminal offence from 26 January 2009...
, in response to a request from Liz Longhurst, a move that has been criticised by anti-censorship and alternative sexuality groups, as the law will criminalise images involving consenting adults.
First resignation
During his time as Home Secretary, Blunkett had a relationship with
Kimberly FortierKimberly Quinn is an American journalist, commentator and magazine publisher...
, the
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-born publisher of
The Spectator, a conservative magazine. The three-year relationship ended acrimoniously in August 2004, with Fortier choosing to return to her husband, Stephen Quinn. Fortier has since reverted to her married name.
Blair regarded it proper for Blunkett to remain Home Secretary while pursuing his pregnant former lover in the courts to ascertain paternity of her unborn child as it appeared of no relevance to his ministerial position. However, at the end of November 2004, it was alleged that Blunkett abused his position to assist his ex-lover's Filipina
nannyA nanny or childminder is a person who looks after the child or children of another family. Childminding differs from nannying in that a nanny goes to the house of the child in order to care for it; childminders look after the child in the childminder's home...
, Leoncia "Luz" Casalme, by speeding up her residence
visaA visa is an indication that a person is authorized to enter the country which "issued" the visa, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
application and later using his influence to ensure that she successfully obtained an
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n tourist visa. An investigation into these allegations was launched, led by
Sir Alan BuddSir Alan Peter Budd is a prominent British economist, who was a founding member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee in 1997....
. Shortly before Sir Alan was due to report his findings, an email emerged headed "no special favours, .. but a bit quicker". Though there was no evidence Blunkett was responsible for the email or its title, he resigned as Home Secretary on 15 December 2004, saying that questions about his honesty were damaging the government. Sir Alan's final verdict, delivered on 21 December 2004, concluded that "I believe I have been able to establish a chain of events linking Blunkett to the change in the decision on Mrs Casalme's application."
Budd admitted that the investigation was "not a straightforward matter", because few involved in it could recall the details. His report says:
A fax from Blunkett's office to the IND had not been found during the inquiry but Sir Alan found no evidence of an attempt to conceal or destroy evidence. Following the report's publication, he told reporters: "I have been unable to link Mr Blunkett to the sending of faxes to the IND. There must have been such a link but I have been unable to discover what its nature was."
Blunkett resigned as Home Secretary after being told in advance of Budd's findings. He said: "I want to make it clear that I fully accept the findings of Sir Alan's report, where his findings differ from my recollections this is simply due to failure on my part to recall details."
On the day that Sir Alan delivered his report, a Parliamentary standards committee led by
Sir Philip MawerSir Philip Mawer was the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards from 2002 until 2008 when he became an independent advisor on Ministerial standards to Gordon Brown. He was previously Secretary General of the General Synod of the Church of England....
also upheld a complaint against Blunkett for giving Quinn a taxpayer-funded railway ticket (reserved for MPs' spouses) to the value of
£The pound sterling , often simply called the pound, is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory...
179. Blunkett had already admitted that he had broken the rules, saying that he had made an honest mistake, and repaid the sum in question.
Blunkett was not helped by a series of stinging criticisms of his
CabinetA Cabinet is a body of high-ranking members of government, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or Executive Committee.- Overview :...
colleagues, made by Blunkett to his biographer
Stephen PollardStephen Pollard is a British author and journalist, currently editor of The Jewish Chronicle. He is a former Chairman of The European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and a former president of the Centre for the New Europe, a free-market think tank based in Brussels...
, which became public days before he resigned. His increasingly public paternity battle (
see Private life) was also believed by many to be harming his position. However, many believed that he would be able to salvage his political career.
Return to the cabinet
Following the
2005 general electionThe United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect members to the House of Commons.The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a reduced overall majority of 66 and they failed to gain any new seats...
Blunkett was returned to the cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, where he faced a growing
pensions crisisThe pensions crisis is the potential result of insufficient resources being reserved for retirement income as life expectancies rise. As a larger share of the population become reliant on a smaller proportion of the economic active, public and state provision will fall.This is likely to...
, although it is known
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
wanted to make him the new minister for Anti-social behaviour within the cabinet at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister but this was snubbed by
John PrescottJohn Leslie Prescott is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Hull East since 1970; from 1997 to 2007, he was the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, also serving as First Secretary of State from 2001...
. Characteristically he was already at work on the morning of Saturday 7 May, a matter of hours after his appointment. He was to be seen the previous day (the day after the election) anxiously awaiting a telephone call from the PM during the centenary celebrations at the
University of SheffieldThe University of Sheffield is a leading research university, located in Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Ranked within the World's top 70 Universities published by THE - QS World University Rankings and constantly ranked amongst the top 20 universities in Britain and Europe according to The...
, to which he was invited as a speaker. There he was heard to apologise for the woes of student fees he had imposed on the university. He himself had only wanted to apply them to
OxbridgeOxbridge is a composite, or portmanteau, of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in England, and the term is now used to refer to them collectively, often with implications of perceived superior intellectual or social status...
, but had been overruled.
Further political trouble and second resignation
In late October 2005, David Blunkett began to feel the pressure of the media for a second time. Two weeks before the
2005 general electionThe United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect members to the House of Commons.The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a reduced overall majority of 66 and they failed to gain any new seats...
he took up a directorship in a company called
DNA BioscienceDNA Bioscience is a DNA testing company offering a DNA paternity testing service in the UK.The company gained much press in 2005 when UK politician David Blunkett bought shares in the company, shortly after which he became Secretary of State for Work and Pensions...
and bought £15 000 of shares in the company.
On 31 October 2005 Blunkett was asked to explain why he had not consulted the
Advisory Committee on Business AppointmentsThe Advisory Committee on Business Appointments is an non-departmental public body in the UK, which was set up in 1975 to provide advice on applications from the most senior Crown servants who wish to take up outside appointments after they leave Crown service...
regarding the directorship. Having placed the shares into an independent trust, "Mr Blunkett said he had asked his three grown-up sons from his first marriage to authorise trustees to "dispose of" the shares. They agreed to the request."
Blunkett's political opponents claimed that a conflict of interest was created by him having been director of and holding shares in a company proposing to bid for government contracts to provide paternity tests to the
Child Support AgencyThe Child Support Agency is a UK Government executive agency, part of the Department for Work and Pensions in Great Britain and the Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland, launched on April 5, 1993...
– part of the
Department for Work and PensionsThe Department for Work and Pensions is the largest government department in the Government of the United Kingdom, created on June 8, 2001 from the merger of the employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security...
, of which he was Secretary of State.
An investigation by
Cabinet secretaryA Cabinet Secretary is almost always a senior official who provides services and advice to a Cabinet of Ministers. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powers, including general responsibility for the entire civil service...
Sir Gus O'DonnellSir Augustine Thomas O'Donnell, KCB, born 1 October 1952, known as Sir Gus O'Donnell , is the Cabinet Secretary, the highest ranking civil servant in the British Civil Service...
– asked for by Prime Minister Tony Blair – found that although Blunkett had not broken the Ministerial Code by becoming a director of the company or buying its shares, he should have consulted the Advisory Committee before doing so.
However, it was revealed on 1 November that Lord Mayhew of Twysden, who chairs the Advisory Committee, had sent three letters to Blunkett reminding him to seek the committee's advice on his involvement with DNA Bioscience, which he ignored. On the same day,
Sir Alistair GrahamSir John Alistair Graham is a well known figure in British public life. He was Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life from 2003 until April 2007 ....
, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said Blunkett
had breached ministerial rules.
Blunkett declared that he would not be resigning, saying to a newspaper, "I have done nothing wrong." A statement by Downing Street said that the Prime Minister did not believe that Blunkett's mistake should prevent him from carrying out his job.
It also became public that Blunkett had taken two other paid jobs, one with the international Jewish charity
World ORTWorld ORT is a non-governmental organization whose mission is the advancement of Jewish people through training and education, with past and present activities in over 100 countries....
the main focus of which is the development of hi-tech industries in Israel. and the other with Indepen Consulting, again without seeking advice from the Advisory Committee.
On 2 November, Lord Nolan, a former Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life and architect of the code of conduct, was reported as having said in an interview with the
Yorkshire PostThe Yorkshire Post is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, England by Yorkshire Post Newspapers, a company owned by Johnston Press...
, "I think he's more or less admitted that he should have followed the rules. But I think it's the fault of the Government that he has been allowed to see if he can get away with it." Lord Nolan was reported to have continued: "Blair should insist on Ministers all round obeying the rules. I think that if anyone breaks the rules they should be disciplined, otherwise there's no point having the rules." Lord Nolan agreed that this meant that Blunkett should have been dismissed or demoted by the Prime Minister.
On the same day, a scheduled appearance before a House of Commons Select Committee was cancelled at the last minute and Blunkett was summoned to a meeting at
Number 1010 Downing Street is the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury and hence Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...
. Later that morning, a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed Blunkett had resigned at the meeting, stating that his position had become untenable. In a statement, Blunkett claimed that the "lies" of those such as
Max CliffordMaxwell Frank Clifford is an English publicist. Although his client range is varied, he is a controversial figure for often representing unpopular clients and acting as an agent to people selling "kiss-and-tell" stories to tabloid newspapers.A traditional Labour supporter, Clifford openly vowed...
would one day be "dealt with".
John HuttonJohn Matthew Patrick Hutton is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Barrow and Furness in Cumbria since 1992, and has served in a number of Cabinet offices, including Defence Secretary and Business Secretary....
was appointed as David Blunkett's successor that day. Blunkett's children's trustees decided not to sell the shares in DNA Bioscience after all. In December 2005 it was reported that the company faces insolvency, resulting in Blunkett's shares being worth very little.
Despite his resignation from the cabinet in November, Blunkett continued to enjoy rent-free accommodation in
BelgraviaBelgravia is a district of central London in the City of Westminster, situated to the south-west of Buckingham Palace. Belgravia is approximately bounded by Knightsbridge to the north , Grosvenor Place and Buckingham Palace Road to the east, Pimlico Road to the south, and Sloane Street to the west...
, London, at tax-payers' expense until he found new accommodation in mid-March 2006. He also rents a cottage on the estate of
Chatsworth HouseChatsworth House is a large country house at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England 3½ miles north east of Bakewell . It is the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, and has been home to their family, the Cavendish family, since Bess of Hardwick settled at Chatsworth in 1549.Standing on the east bank of the...
. The controversy gained further press coverage later in 2006, when Tory MP Philip Davies asked when Blunkett was due to vacate the residence. Ironically, this was published only the day before the same newspaper broke the story about him vacating the house, which will now stand empty and be maintained by the government at the tax-payer's expense until another cabinet minister requires an official residence.
Backbenches
David Blunkett, who pioneered the UK government's ID cards proposals, has taken a job with
EntrustHeadquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Entrust, Inc., specializes in security solutions such as public key infrastructure, multifactor authentication, SSL, fraud detection and e-mail security....
, a security company which works on Spain's ID card and has formally registered an interest in the British project. He has also used his column in the
The SunThe Sun may refer to -* The Sun a tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland* Sun, the star at the center of the Solar System...
to promote the concept of ID cards. In April 2009, Blunkett called for the ID Card scheme to be scrapped.
Personal life
Blunkett divorced his wife, by whom he had three sons, in 1990. In 2004, with news of his affair with
Kimberly QuinnKimberly Quinn is an American journalist, commentator and magazine publisher...
, Blunkett asserted that he was the father of Quinn's two-year-old son, William and also perhaps of her then-unborn child. Quinn denied this, claiming that both children were her husband's. In late 2004, Blunkett began a legal challenge to gain access to William. In late December 2004, as was widely reported in the media, DNA tests confirmed that Quinn's two-year-old son, William, was Blunkett's child. On 5 March 2005 it was confirmed that Blunkett was not the father of Quinn's newborn son, Lorcan.
In 2005 there was more speculation about Blunkett's private life, this time regarding a young woman and for not disclosing free membership to an exclusive London nightclub,
Annabel'sAnnabel's is a London nightclub, located at 44 Berkeley Square, London. It was founded by entrepreneur Mark Birley and named after his then-wife Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart.-Background:...
. The matter with the young woman has been cleared up following a full apology from the newspaper which printed the original story and his membership at the nightclub has been forfeited.
On 27 January 2009, Blunkett announced that he was engaged to be married to Dr Margaret Williams, eleven years his junior, a doctor in the city of Sheffield. On June 6, 2009, he was walking in
DerbyshireDerbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains...
and was injured by a "charging cow", suffering from a broken rib and "painful bruising".
Guide dogs
Blunkett's
guide dogGuide dogs are assistance dogs trained to lead blind or vision impaired people around obstacles.Although the dogs can be trained to navigate various obstacles, they are partially color blind and are not capable of interpreting street signs. The human half of the guide dog team does the directing,...
s – Ruby, Teddy, Offa, Lucy and most recently Sadie have become familiar characters in the
House of CommonsThe House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members...
, usually sleeping at his feet on the floor of the chamber, inspiring occasional witty comments from Blunkett and his fellow MPs on both sides of the house. In one memorable incident, Lucy (a black
LabradorThe Labrador Retriever is one of several kinds of retriever, a type of gun dog. The Labrador, once known as the Lesser Newfoundland, is the most popular breed of dog in the world, and is by a large margin the most popular breed by registration in Canada, the United States ,and the United Kingdom.It...
) vomited during a speech by opposition member
David WillettsDavid Linsay Willetts is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Havant, in the United Kingdom. He is currently the Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills.-Education:...
. On occasions when Blunkett was guided by (ex-Prime Minister)
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
the wry comment has been made: "who is guiding whom?" Another time, his (new) guide dog led him to the Conservative Party benches. However, Blunkett's blindness does not generally arouse much comment.
The Blunkett tapes
In October 2006, David Blunkett's audio diaries were published in his book
The Blunkett tapes: My life in the bear pit. The tapes detail his time as a cabinet minister until the present date, and provide insights into the workings of the Labour cabinet. They were recorded every week, and contain his view of what was happening in Cabinet at the time, alongside contemporary reflections and more recent thoughts on the events.
Speaking career
Outside politics Blunkett enjoys a career as a popular conference and after dinner speaker. His booking agency JLA state that his speech topics include "The Political Landscape, Overcoming Adversity, Social Responsibility and Diversity."
Popular Culture References
As a result of David Blunkett's affair with
Kimberly QuinnKimberly Quinn is an American journalist, commentator and magazine publisher...
he has been portrayed three times in dramatic or musical form. Along with the other recent dalliances associated with
The Spectator, Blunkett was featured in
Who's The Daddy?, a play by
Toby YoungToby Daniel Moorsom Young is a British journalist and the author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the tale of his failed five-year attempt to make it in the United States as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine; and The Sound of No Hands Clapping, a follow-up about his failure...
and Lloyd Evans, the magazine's theatre critics, which ran at
The King's Head TheatreThe King's Head Theatre, founded in 1970 by the late Dan Crawford, is an Off-West End venue in London. It was the first pub theatre in the UK....
in the Summer of 2005. The satirist
Alistair BeatonAlistair Beaton is a Scottish left wing political satirist, journalist, radio presenter, novelist and television writer. At one point in his career he was also a speechwriter for Gordon Brown....
wrote the television film
A Very Social Secretary, for Channel 4, which was screened in October 2005. Finally,
Blunkett – The Musical toured the
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
during the course of Spring 2005. This work featured music by the American composer Mary Jo Paranzino; there is also a book by
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
journalist
Ginny DougaryGinny Dougary is a British award-winning interviewer and feature writer for The Times. She is the author of 'The Executive Tart & Other Myths', and a contributor to several anthologies including 'OK,You Mugs' and 'Amazonians - new travel writing by women'...
. In 2005
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967.-Outline:...
had a series of comic programmes called
A 15 Minute Musical, the first of which was based on David Blunkett's affair with Kimberley Quinn.
A character based on Blunkett appeared in the Canadian cartoon series
Bromwell HighBromwell High is an animated series about a British high school in South London. It first aired on Teletoon in Canada and Channel 4 in the UK . It is a co-production between Hat Trick Productions in the UK and DHX Media in Canada. According to the Website , it was originally to be entitled...
, and a club-night called Electric Blunkett, held at the Sheffield Blind Institute, began in the summer of 2005, although its name was swiftly changed to Electric Blanket. Comedian
Linda SmithLinda Helen Smith was an English stand-up comic and comedy writer. She was born in Erith in Kent and was a regular Radio 4 panellist, being voted "Wittiest Living Person" by listeners in 2002...
once described Blunkett as "Satan's bearded folk singer". He is the topic of the song
Blindness by Manchester group The Fall. He appeared on The F Word with Gordon Ramsey cooking a
Shepherd's PieCottage pie, also known as shepherd's pie, refers to an English meat pie with a crust made from mashed potato and beef.The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791, when potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor Cottage pie, also known as shepherd's pie,...
on 3 June 2008.
Television
David Blunkett took part in a celebrity version of Mastermind, where his specialist subject was Harry Potter. He came last.
David Blunkett was featured on the channel five documentary series 'Banged up' in 2008. The show followed 10 teenagers sent to a fake jail for 10 days to see if it could change their criminal ways. He was involved in various ways, one of which was being on the panel when the teenagers were up for parole.
David Blunkett was interviewed as part of Amando Iannucci's examination of "Milton's Paradise Lost", which screened in May 2009. In it Blunkett speculates on how Milton's service in Oliver Cromwell's government might have affected his beliefs and jokingly quotes the media as saying "He [Blunkett] is no Milton."
External links
Resignation as Home Secretary
Further political trouble
Pay off for leaving the Cabinet – then coming back...
Paternity battle