LONDON: Prime minister Tony Blair's confidante and secretary for work and pensions, David Blunkett, resigned from the government accepting responsibility for his private business dealings. This is the second time Blunkett has tendered his resignation in less than a year.
Blunkett was replaced by a low profile John Hutton, 50.
The departure damaged Blair's reputation, as opposition charged him with flawed judgement. He also faced a challenge today from law makers, including some from Labour Party, over the new anti-terrorism laws.
Blunkett, in conversation with media people after the resignation, denied that he had misused his office but said he had decided to quit because "I thought there was going to be increasing damage done to the government by me".
Blunkett is known as a competent minister and his job as works and pensions secretary involved an overhaul of Britain's Social Security system and management of the country's welfare spending. Blind from birth, he had fought his way against disability to secure high office after childhood of poverty and personal tragedy. When he was 11, his father died after falling into a vat of boiling water. He is rarely seen without his black Labrador guide dog, Sadie.
He was earlier involved in a controversy relating to his affair with Kimberly Quinn, the American publisher of The Spectator. A charge that he had misused his office as then home secretary in securing a residence visa for Quinn's nanny led to his exit from office in last December.
The present charge is relating to his association with a company called DNA Biosciences, which trades in paternity-testing kits. He became a non-executive director of the company for two weeks in April during campaigning for the May elections that returned Blair to power. Newspaper reports related him to business dealings of the company when he was out of office. He admitted that he had held paid positions in companies including DNA Biosciences without following mandatory guidelines on business ventures for ministers leaving office.
Blair faced another critical situation yesterday when home secretary Charles Clarke was forced to defer a vote on extending the amount of time that terror suspects can be held without charge as the Government's majority was cut to a single vote over creating a new offence of glorifying terrorism.
Clarke suggested a week of talks with Labour backbenchers, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats to find "consensus".
Posted
on : Fri, 04 Nov 2005 03:05 GMT | Politics News
By : Anne Philips
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