The Hindu : International : Colleagues angry over Blunkett remarks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 13, 2004

International

International

Colleagues angry over Blunkett remarks

By Gaby Hinsliff

LONDON, DEC. 12. The barely repressed fury of the British Cabinet Ministers attacked by David Blunkett, the U.K.'s Home Secretary [Interior Minister] and one of the Prime Minister Tony Blair's closest allies, spilled into the open yesterday amid growing criticism of his `idiotic' indiscretion in co-operating with an explosive biography.

Political ammunition

Mr. Blunkett's colleagues initially gritted their teeth when the results of what one aide called the Home Secretary's "enormous slagging session" — in which he told his biographer that the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, had made `hysterical' demands for curbs on Eastern European migrants, the Health Minister, Charles Clarke, had not lived up to expectations, Tessa Jowell was `weak', Patricia Hewitt did not `think strategically' and the Chancellor [Finance Minister], Gordon Brown, had been "throwing his weight around" — became public in book extracts earlier this week.

Mr. Blunkett apologised to his targets last week, appealing for forgiveness and insisting he had not meant his more wounding remarks.

Ministers were instructed not to hit back as Downing Street tried desperately to close down the row. But as backbenchers began openly criticising him this weekend — with the former minister Peter Kilfoyle warning he had handed `a wealth of ammunition' to the Opposition Conservative party, who are now considering using his comments during the election campaign expected next May — the dam finally burst.

"There is no one who recognises more acutely than David what an idiot he has been," said one senior Government source.

"Tessa was absolutely hopping mad, Jack was off the scale, and Charles has produced this grid that shows the enormous progress he says he has made since he has been Education Secretary."

Claims that Mr. Straw panicked about the accession of Eastern European countries to the European Union in spring have also been rebuffed.

"Frankly, I cannot recognise any of that stuff," said one friend of Mr. Straw bluntly. "And I wouldn't talk about in those terms about any other Minister."

Sources close to Ms. Hewitt, meanwhile, have said Mr. Blunkett's complaints that she "nearly let the Competition Commission demolish local chemists" are the opposite of the truth: in fact, she fought the commission to prevent it.

Pressure to quit

The bubbling fury helps explain anonymous briefings from senior Ministers that Mr. Blunkett will shortly be forced to resign.

In fact, most Ministers still expect him to survive, but are anxiously awaiting the Budd inquiry, expected to report shortly into claims he fast-tracked a visa for his married lover's nanny.

Beneath the froth of colleagues' injured feelings, the row risks damaging Mr. Blunkett, with his victims now convinced the Home Secretary owes them one, weakening his bargaining powers around the Cabinet table.

Cabinet sources said Mr. Blunkett will tough it out, mindful of the experience of fallen comrades such as Stephen Byers — who resigned not in the aftermath of the infamous `bury bad news' email sent by his special adviser, but when relentless press criticism became too much. —

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