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UK Home Secretary David "Mad Dog" Blunkett in Deep Doo-Doo
The future of David Blunkett was plunged into fresh doubt last night after new evidence emerged about claims that he speeded up his lover's nanny's visa application. An independent inquiry led by Sir Alan Budd has started into claims, which the Home Secretary strongly denies, that he interfered in the Filipina nanny's application for permanent leave to stay in Britain. But Home Office letters painted a picture of a visa application that could have taken months suddenly being fully granted in weeks. One letter to the nanny, Leoncia Casalme, dated April 23, 2003, said her application had been accepted as valid but that it could take up to a year. Only 19 days later, the nanny - who was working for Mr Blunkett's then lover Kimberly Quinn - was told that her request to stay permanently had been approved. The letters, published in today's Daily Mail, will heighten speculation about whether Mr Blunkett had a role in granting the visa.
| I am singularly not distraught over this. Since Kimberly was presumably making whoopee regularly with the Home Secretary, I don't find it in the least unusual that she'd be able to get her nanny's visa application greased. My friends come to me for help with computers or with questions on WoT. His friends come to him for help with visas. If there's sin, it would appear to be pretty venial. |
The new material appeared only hours after he made an embarrassing apology for giving a parliamentary first-class rail warrant, reserved for the spouses of MPs, to Mrs Quinn.
| Sorry. That doesn't make my indignator quiver, either. |
| Is it time to build an Acme Indignator™? |
Last night Mr Blunkett's office said the Home Secretary, who has admitted checking over the application before it was submitted, stood by his denial of wrong-doing.
| Whoopdy doo. That's the best scandal you can come up with? What's Christine Keeler doing? Maybe you should hire her as a consultant. |
Posted by: Bulldog 2004-12-01 |
