http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,9061,1362558,00.html Courts already involved in Blunkett dispute
Michael White, political editor
Tuesday November 30, 2004
The Guardian
The fallout from David Blunkett's broken love affair was last night threatening to spiral out of control after it emerged that aspects of the bitter dispute are already in the courts as well as the political arena.
With a former civil servant now investigating allegations that the home secretary abused his official position to help Kimberly Quinn, publisher of the Spectator magazine, Tony Blair took a calculated risk in saying yesterday that he has "no doubt at all that he will be exonerated" by Sir Alan Budd's inquiry.
A senior Home Office official did check a visa application for Mr Blunkett's then-lover's Filipina nanny, the home secretary's allies admitted last night. But they emphatically rejected charges that he did anything to "fast-track" the nanny's bid for permanent British residence.
The Quinn camp does not claim direct evidence that Mr Blunkett did expedite the visa application, only that he claimed to be able to take care of it.