UK - Home Secretary still under investigation
14 December 2004
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UK Home Secretary, David Blunkett, is still being investigated on allegations of fast tracking a visa application for his ex-lover's nanny. The finding of the investigation is supposed to be published on Dec. 21, but recent allegations made by the daily Sun newspaper may cause a delay.
Blunkett maintains his innocence and says he has had nothing to do with the nanny's application. There is also the probe by the Commons watchdog Sir Philip Mawer into the fact that Blunkett gave official rail warrants intended only for wives to his former lover>
He has insisted he has done nothing wrong - although he accepted accidentally breaking the rules over the rail warrants and has apologized and repaid the money.
Moreover, Blunkett finds himself on thin ice as he is attacking fellow colleagues in a forthcoming biography.
In the new biography of Blunkett by Stephen Pollard, the home secretary says Education Secretary Charles Clarke has gone "soft" on standards; Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt does not think strategically; and deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is sensitive about being dubbed "two Jags".
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